In Lightning Lotto under the 5/49 · since May 2025 rules — 515 draws, 5 from 1–49.
69times drawn · chance expected 53 +2.39σ
9draws waiting · a wait this long: 42% for any number
7.2average wait between appearances · chance says 9.8
25longest completed wait · >99% chance of one at least that long
18 is drawn as often as chance explains
Drawn 69 times in 515 draws against 52.6 expected, +2.39σ. Each draw is independent: after 9 draws away it is exactly as likely tonight as a number drawn yesterday.
18
Number 18, draw by draw
Drawn 69 times in 515 draws · average wait 7.2 draws · longest completed wait 25 · waiting 9 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 18 has a favourite seat — chance gives a small number the low 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, 18 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: 18 is drawn with probability 5/49 tonight whatever it did last week.