In Lightning Lotto under the 5/49 · since May 2025 rules — 515 draws, 5 from 1–49.
56times drawn · chance expected 53 +0.50σ
3draws waiting · a wait this long: 81% for any number
9.2average wait between appearances · chance says 9.8
34longest completed wait · 80% chance of one at least that long
5 is drawn as often as chance explains
Drawn 56 times in 515 draws against 52.6 expected, +0.50σ. Each draw is independent: after 3 draws away it is exactly as likely tonight as a number drawn yesterday.
5
Number 5, draw by draw
Drawn 56 times in 515 draws · average wait 9.2 draws · longest completed wait 34 · 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 5 has a favourite seat — chance gives a small number the low positions more often. That is the shape of sorting, not of the machine.
It has shared a draw with every one of the other 48 numbers; chance expected about 0.5 still unmet by now. Every pair →
How many people play it
Under the crowd model, 5 is picked about 1.34× as often as an indifferent choice — 6th 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: 5 is drawn with probability 5/49 tonight whatever it did last week.