In Lightning Lotto under the 5/49 · since May 2025 rules — 504 draws, 5 from 1–49.
55times drawn · chance expected 51 +0.53σ
17draws waiting · a wait this long: 18% for any number
8.9average wait between appearances · chance says 9.8
34longest completed wait · 79% chance of one at least that long
5 is drawn as often as chance explains
Drawn 55 times in 504 draws against 51.4 expected, +0.53σ. Each draw is independent: after 17 draws away it is exactly as likely tonight as a number drawn yesterday.
5
Number 5, draw by draw
Drawn 55 times in 504 draws · average wait 8.9 draws · longest completed wait 34 · waiting 17 draws now
a completed wait — darker is longer the wait still running — a lower bound, not a finished gap
Where it lands in a sorted draw
Sort a draw and 5 has a favourite seat — chance gives a small number the low positions more often. That is the shape of sorting, not of the machine.
It has shared a draw with every one of the other 48 numbers; chance expected about 0.5 still unmet by now. Every pair →
How many people play it
Under the crowd model, 5 is picked about 1.34× as often as an indifferent choice — 6th most popular of 49. That changes nothing about whether it comes up, and everything about how many ways a jackpot on it would be shared.
Nothing here predicts the next draw. A number’s history is a record of a fair machine’s past, and the machine keeps none of it: 5 is drawn with probability 5/49 tonight whatever it did last week.