Number 9

In Megabucks Plus under the 5/41 + 1/0 · Apr 2022 – Apr 2023 rules — 104 draws, 5 from 1–41 (an earlier era).

13times drawn · chance expected 13 +0.10σ

11draws waiting · a wait this long: 27% for any number

7.2average wait between appearances · chance says 8.2

20longest completed wait · 65% chance of one at least that long

9 is drawn as often as chance explains

Drawn 13 times in 104 draws against 12.7 expected, +0.10σ. Each draw is independent: after 11 draws away it is exactly as likely tonight as a number drawn yesterday.

Number 9, draw by draw

Drawn 13 times in 104 draws · average wait 7.2 draws · longest completed wait 20 · waiting 11 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 9 has a favourite seat — chance gives a small number the low positions more often. That is the shape of sorting, not of the machine.

1st smallest4 · chance 5.1
2nd smallest6 · chance 5.6
3rd smallest3 · chance 2.0
4th smallest0 · chance 0.3
5th smallest0 · chance 0.0

Every position’s lane →

The company it keeps

Seen most often with these — chance gives every partner about 1.3 shared draws, and the leaders are simply the ones that came out ahead this time.

14 3 18 31 35 39

Never drawn alongside 12 of the other 40 numbers; chance expects about 11 such strangers by now. Every pair →

How many people play it

Under the crowd model, 9 is picked about 1.48× as often as an indifferent choice — 2nd most popular of 41. That changes nothing about whether it comes up, and everything about how many ways a jackpot on it would be shared.

Numbers 1–31 — the birthday zone ×1.22
Numbers 1–12 — day and month overlap ×1.10
Culturally lucky numbers 3, 8, 9 ×1.10

The model and its sources → · What people believe about 9 →

Every draw it appeared in

Date	Wait	Position	The draw
2023-03-15	20	1st	9 14 28 30 35
2023-01-04	1	3rd	2 3 9 26 31
2022-12-31	6	2nd	1 9 13 14 18
2022-12-10	6	2nd	8

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: 9 is drawn with probability 5/41 tonight whatever it did last week.