In Lightning Lotto under the 5/49 + 1/49 · Sep 2024 – May 2026 rules — 589 draws, 5 from 1–49 (an earlier era).
65times drawn · chance expected 60 +0.67σ
18draws waiting · a wait this long: 16% for any number
8.8average wait between appearances · chance says 9.8
38longest completed wait · 70% chance of one at least that long
26 is drawn as often as chance explains
Drawn 65 times in 589 draws against 60.1 expected, +0.67σ. Each draw is independent: after 18 draws away it is exactly as likely tonight as a number drawn yesterday. It has also come out as the bonus ball 10 times, counted separately.
26
Number 26, draw by draw
Drawn 65 times in 589 draws · average wait 8.8 draws · longest completed wait 38 · waiting 18 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 26 has a favourite seat — chance gives a large number the high positions more often. That is the shape of sorting, not of the machine.
Never drawn alongside 1 of the other 48 numbers; chance expects about 0.2 such strangers by now. Every pair →
How many people play it
Under the crowd model, 26 is picked about 1.22× as often as an indifferent choice — 15th most popular of 49. 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: 26 is drawn with probability 5/49 tonight whatever it did last week.