Number 19

In Mega Millions under the 5/50 + 1/25 · Sep 1996 – Jan 1999 rules — 172 draws, 5 from 1–50 (an earlier era).

14times drawn · chance expected 17 −0.81σ

3draws waiting · a wait this long: 81% for any number

11.1average wait between appearances · chance says 10.0

34longest completed wait · 34% chance of one at least that long

19 is drawn as often as chance explains

Drawn 14 times in 172 draws against 17.2 expected, −0.81σ. Each draw is independent: after 3 draws away it is exactly as likely tonight as a number drawn yesterday.

Number 19, draw by draw

Drawn 14 times in 172 draws · average wait 11.1 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 19 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 smallest1 · chance 2.1
2nd smallest7 · chance 5.3
3rd smallest5 · chance 4.7
4th smallest0 · chance 1.7
5th smallest1 · chance 0.2

Every position’s lane →

The company it keeps

Seen most often with these — chance gives every partner about 1.1 shared draws, and the leaders are simply the ones that came out ahead this time.

28 11 18 24 29 38

Never drawn alongside 16 of the other 49 numbers; chance expects about 16 such strangers by now. Every pair →

How many people play it

Under the crowd model, 19 is picked about 1.22× as often as an indifferent choice — 15th most popular of 50. 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

The model and its sources → · What people believe about 19 →

Every draw it appeared in

Date	Wait	Position	The draw
1999-01-01	34	2nd	11 19 28 43 48
1998-09-04	4	2nd	11 19 25 34 47
1998-08-21	12	3rd	6 16 19 28 48
1998-07-10	11	1st	19 24

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: 19 is drawn with probability 5/50 tonight whatever it did last week.