In Lightning Lotto under the 5/49 + 1/49 · Sep 2024 – May 2026 rules — 589 draws, 5 from 1–49 (an earlier era).
59times drawn · chance expected 60 −0.15σ
3draws waiting · a wait this long: 81% for any number
10.1average wait between appearances · chance says 9.8
41longest completed wait · 55% chance of one at least that long
42 is drawn as often as chance explains
Drawn 59 times in 589 draws against 60.1 expected, −0.15σ. Each draw is independent: after 3 draws away it is exactly as likely tonight as a number drawn yesterday. It has also come out as the bonus ball 13 times, counted separately.
42
Number 42, draw by draw
Drawn 59 times in 589 draws · average wait 10.1 draws · longest completed wait 41 · waiting 3 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.
Never drawn alongside 1 of the other 48 numbers; chance expects about 0.4 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.
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.