“The odds of the Pick 4 game are 1 in 10,000 and the odds do not change, so the probability of a number being drawn more than once is high,” said Danielle Frizzi-Babb, deputy director of communications at the Ohio Lottery.
The probability remains the same that two drawings in a row are the same, or 0.01%, said Alan Veliz-Cuba, an associate professor of the Department of Mathematics at the University of Dayton.
The probability that two drawings from consecutive days are the same is higher, he said. A good approximation is 3/10,000 or 0.03%, he said about that scenario.
Ohio Lottery’s Pick 4 game drawing the same number two days in a row was a rare event that was also bound to happen given the number of times the game has been played, according to Veliz-Cuba.
“Since the lottery has been played so many times, there have been many opportunities for this rare event happening,” Veliz-Cuba said.
The probability that two drawings in a row are the same in the approximately 18,000 times the lottery has been played is approximately 83%, Veliz-Cuba said.
This year there have been 16 times that the same numbers were drawn twice, Frizzi-Babb said.
“The October 2 and 3 drawings are the only time the same number has been drawn in back-to-back drawings this year,” Frizzi-Babb said.
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