Number 42

In Lightning Lotto under the 5/49 · since May 2026 rules — 151 draws, 5 from 1–49.

12times drawn · chance expected 15 −0.92σ

5draws waiting · a wait this long: 65% for any number

11.7average wait between appearances · chance says 9.8

23longest completed wait · 66% chance of one at least that long

42 is drawn as often as chance explains

Drawn 12 times in 151 draws against 15.4 expected, −0.92σ. Each draw is independent: after 5 draws away it is exactly as likely tonight as a number drawn yesterday.

Number 42, draw by draw

Drawn 12 times in 151 draws · average wait 11.7 draws · longest completed wait 23 · waiting 5 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 42 has a favourite seat — chance gives a large number the high positions more often. That is the shape of sorting, not of the machine.

1st smallest0 · chance 0.0
2nd smallest0 · chance 0.1
3rd smallest3 · chance 1.1
4th smallest1 · chance 4.6
5th smallest8 · chance 6.2

Every position’s lane →

The company it keeps

Seen most often with these — chance gives every partner about 1.0 shared draws, and the leaders are simply the ones that came out ahead this time.

9 43 2 5 7 10

Never drawn alongside 18 of the other 48 numbers; chance expects about 18 such strangers by now. Every pair →

How many people play it

Under the crowd model, 42 is picked about 0.86× as often as an indifferent choice — 33rd 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.

Numbers above 31 ×0.86

The model and its sources → · What people believe about 42 →

Every draw it appeared in

Date	Wait	Position	The draw
2026-10-18	8	3rd	18 31 42 43 49
2026-10-10	5	5th	5 9 17 36 42
2026-10-05	9	3rd	9 30 42 43 48
2026-09-26	23	5th	9 11

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: 42 is drawn with probability 5/49 tonight whatever it did last week.