# 17 minutes to the lottery-wish me luck! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 31, 2013, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/17-minutes-to-the-lottery-wish-me-luck/648874 "2013-01-31T03:44:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2013, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/17-minutes-to-the-lottery-wish-me-luck/648874/1 "2013-01-31T03:44:39Z")
7, 9, 11, 15, 17 are the winning numbers. Wish me luck! hh ---
**Author:** ![PandaBear77](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@PandaBear77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PandaBear77)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2013, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/17-minutes-to-the-lottery-wish-me-luck/648874/2 "2013-01-31T03:48:42Z")
Remember the pandas when you win! ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2013, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/17-minutes-to-the-lottery-wish-me-luck/648874/3 "2013-01-31T04:46:06Z")
Wow. Couldn’t have been more off if I’d tried! I shall, however, remember the pandas when I \*\*do \*\*win. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2013, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/17-minutes-to-the-lottery-wish-me-luck/648874/4 "2013-01-31T04:50:08Z")
so what were the numbers? ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2013, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/17-minutes-to-the-lottery-wish-me-luck/648874/5 "2013-01-31T05:05:48Z")
I’ve been mentally playing the lottery for over twelve years now. Picking numbers without actually spending money on the tickets. I used numbers from our kids’ birthdays. Twice in 4000 tries I matched… two numbers. Never three, let alone more. (So, my little hobby has saved me $4000. Makes your hobby seem downright profligate, doesn’t it, Mr. “I Just Recreated The Cleveland Warehouse District in HO Scale”?) _Oddly enough, THREE of your numbers are among mine… hmmm…_ ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2013, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/17-minutes-to-the-lottery-wish-me-luck/648874/6 "2013-01-31T05:21:26Z")
If you choose numbers less than 31 you’re more likely to share a win, because people choose dates probably more than any other (convenient numbers to hand, logical choice). So if the possible range of numbers includes some over 31, choose at least one or two from there to minimise the sharing should they get chosen (even for lower divisions). Such is my only piece of advice for lottery picks. I am not a statistician. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2013, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/17-minutes-to-the-lottery-wish-me-luck/648874/7 "2013-02-01T15:53:10Z")
> [@johnpost](#): > > so what were the numbers? Sorry, just got back. 14 16 32 47 52. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2013, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/17-minutes-to-the-lottery-wish-me-luck/648874/8 "2013-02-01T18:00:02Z")
> [@handsomeharry](#): > > Wow. Couldn’t have been more off if I’d tried! You didn’t win the lottery?! I am shocked! What are the odds of losing that? (I should talk…we play Powerball regularly and we haven’t gotten a single number for weeks!)