Number 9

In New York Lotto under the 6/59 + 1/55 · Jan 2010 – Oct 2010 rules — 83 draws, 6 from 1–59 (an earlier era).

10times drawn · chance expected 8 +0.57σ

14draws waiting · a wait this long: 25% for any number

7.3average wait between appearances · chance says 9.8

24longest completed wait · 55% chance of one at least that long

9 is drawn as often as chance explains

Drawn 10 times in 83 draws against 8.4 expected, +0.57σ. Each draw is independent: after 14 draws away it is exactly as likely tonight as a number drawn yesterday.

Number 9, draw by draw

Drawn 10 times in 83 draws · average wait 7.3 draws · longest completed wait 24 · waiting 14 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 9 has a favourite seat — chance gives a small number the low positions more often. That is the shape of sorting, not of the machine.

1st smallest6 · chance 4.6
2nd smallest3 · chance 4.0
3rd smallest1 · chance 1.2
4th smallest0 · chance 0.1
5th smallest0 · chance 0.0
6th smallest0 · chance 0.0

Every position’s lane →

The company it keeps

Seen most often with these — chance gives every partner about 0.9 shared draws, and the leaders are simply the ones that came out ahead this time.

21 23 4 12 13 15

Never drawn alongside 24 of the other 58 numbers; chance expects about 24 such strangers by now. Every pair →

How many people play it

Under the crowd model, 9 is picked about 1.48× as often as an indifferent choice — 2nd most popular of 59. That changes nothing about whether it comes up, and everything about how many ways a jackpot on it would be shared.

Numbers 1–31 — the birthday zone ×1.22
Numbers 1–12 — day and month overlap ×1.10
Culturally lucky numbers 3, 8, 9 ×1.10

The model and its sources → · What people believe about 9 →

Every draw it appeared in

Date	Wait	Position	The draw
2010-08-28	1	1st	9 22 24 42 45 57
2010-08-25	1	1st	9 12 26 49 52 55
2010-08-21	3	2nd	1 9 20 21 27 52

What this cannot tell you

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: 9 is drawn with probability 6/59 tonight whatever it did last week.