Lottery Numbers Past, Present & Future (Paperback)

If you filter the full set of all 13983816 possible permutations using the rules in the book (including the 'pattern shift' approach to eliminating series), then the filtered set will contain 640613 permutations.

Now 640613 / 13983816 ~ 0.045. So, by standard stats theory, we would expect the filtered set to capture a proportional representation in the real world - about 4 in every 100 actual draws.

Put to the test against past UK draws from day one to May 12, 2004 - 879 draws in all, the combined effect of the suggested rules is to eliminate all but 39 of them. In other words, betting the £640613 every draw since day one would have guaranteed you hitting the jackpot 39 times!

Not a feasible bet by any means, but does it indicate some sneaky improvement to the odds that we could exploit on a more affordable scale?

Unfortunately not. 39 / 879 ~ 0.044. About 4 draws in every 100 just as standard proportional representation predicted.

If you're an old hand at the filtering game, forget it - you'll find no new revelations in this particular book.

On the other hand, I've still got to give him 3 stars. If you've never played around with filtering lottery numbers then it's a pretty good intro to this insane form of amusement. And the chances are that you WILL win a tenner more often by critically exploring his ideas!

Each graph shows the frequency with which each group of numbers occur in the results of both lotteries. It rightly displays the distribution patterns of these groups from the results. Then from these patterns it then advises the player to pick a certain number of lottery balls within each group.

As an example, his first group is even numbers. It is true that there are more likely to be 3 even numbers in each set of 6 ball results. This is the most possible result. However he concludes from this that by selecting 3 even and 3 odds numbers you are more likely to gain a winning line. This just isn't true and this is the flaw in his theory. The reason why there are more 3 even and 3 odd lines than, say 2 even and 4 odd lines, is for the simple reason that there are MORE combinations of 3 even and 3 odd lines than there are of 2 even and 3 odd results. If there are more combinations then yes, they are more likely to appear but it doesn't make winning any easier. More combinations mean to have to enter proportionally more lines in order to get the winning line.

And the same logic is applied to all of the various mathemtical groups he lists. I'm afraid that a certain set of statistical stats have been used to purport a view whilst ignoring the realities of probability. The back cover says it took years to complete this study. But it would take not much more than a day of programming to produce the same results and many more.

This book is an introduction to distribution patterns but provides no breakthroughs in the understanding of random events.