Oklahoma Lottery News

If you are a Powerball player you have probably looked at the winning numbers, then your losing numbers and wondered why you have not won yet. Maybe you are playing the wrong numbers.

There is an easy way to determine if you have been and are still playing the wrong numbers and it requires nothing more than the Powerball winning number history, some simple math and a bit of thought.

The Powerball winning numbers history is available in text form by simply Clicking Here and that history file is updated after each Powerball drawing.

While there are many computer programs, some paid and some freely available, which will analyze lottery histories, you do not need one for this simple exercise. All that needed is a simple calculator or simpler still pen/pencil and paper. Or if you want to be really lazy, we will tell you the results later in this article.

For those that like to do it for themselves:

Step 1: Print out the Powerball winning numbers history, available above.

Step 2: Add the five individual white ball numbers together for each Powerball drawing date since 8/28/2005, when Powerball switched to the current 5 of 55 white ball format, and write that sum next to the applicable Powerball winning number.

For example, on 2/28/07 they were 41, 20, 13, 42 and 53 which equals 169. That is the sum for the winning Powerball number for that date.

Step 3: Look through your list of ’sums’ and find the lowest and the highest and mark them so that they stand out.

Step 4 - For the Really Industrious: Do the same for the entire Powerball history, rather than just back to 8/28/2005. If you are not industrious, skip to Step 5.

Step 5 - Working with a sample of your personal Powerball picks over the same time frame, the favorite numbers you always play or whatever the Easy Pick has provided you, calculate the sums of your own Powerball numbers using the same technique as above.

Step 6 - Do any, some or all of your personal Powerball picks fall outside the ‘winning window’ established by the lowest and highest sums of the winning Powerball numbers? If so, you have been playing the wrong numbers and wasting your money in the process.

Even if a portion of your personal picks fall within the ‘winning window’, there is still the possibility that you have been playing the wrong numbers, but that is a topic for a later article in this series.

As promised earlier, here is the basic info about the ‘winning window’ for those that do not wish to do all the math.

The lowest sum possible for any Powerball number is 15. This requires that the five white ball numbers be 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. It can be no lower in a LOTTO 5 style game. And thus far it has not happened in any state sanctioned lottery in the US and reportedly not in the world.

By the same token the highest sum possible for any Powerball number is 265. This requires that the five white balls be 51, 52, 53, 54 and 55. It can be no higher in the current Powerball configuration. It has also never happened in the Powerball Lottery.

If one considers the entire Powerball history the lowest sum of the five white balls ever drawn is 26. The highest sum of the five white balls ever drawn is 230.

Considering only the Powerball history between 8/28/2005 and 2/28/07 (the most recent to the time of this writing) the lowest sum of the five white balls is 50 and the highest sum of the five white balls is still 230.

As of the date of this writing, 3/01/07, the ‘winning window’ for the Powerball Lottery can be defined as one bounded by 50 on the low side and 230 on the high side. If your personal picks, lucky numbers or Easy Picks have been falling outside that window it is not surprising that you have not been winning, as you are not only fighting the odds, you are also fighting history.

In Part 2 of this series we will take a look at ‘oddities’ within the ‘winning window’ and point out where within the current ‘winning window’ the sweet spot is located.
Watch for it, coming soon.