In Lotto under the 6/42 · since Aug 2020 rules — 642 draws, 6 from 1–42.
67times drawn · chance expected 92 −2.79σ
17draws waiting · a wait this long: 8% for any number
9.3average wait between appearances · chance says 7.0
40longest completed wait · 15% chance of one at least that long
5 looks unusual on its own — and unremarkable among 42 numbers
Drawn 67 times in 642 draws against 91.7 expected, −2.79σ. Testing all 42 numbers at once means about 0.4 should look this way by luck alone, so the threshold tightens to 2.4e-4 and this does not pass it.
5
Number 5, draw by draw
Drawn 67 times in 642 draws · average wait 9.3 draws · longest completed wait 40 · 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 41 numbers; chance expected about 0.0 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 42. 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 6/42 tonight whatever it did last week.