!LOTTERY is a predictor for the National Lottery. Although many skeptics say
that the Lottery can't be predicted, it has been shown on many other lotteries
(eg. the Spanish one, Australian one, etc.) that some numbers occur very
frequently, while others occur hardly at all. It was with this in mind that I
decided to conduct a study on the frequency of numbers in the lottery.
Existing as a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet originally, the algorithm of sorting
the most frequent and picking the best six is a simple one. However, in its
first week (week 5 of the lottery) the !Lottery application scooped £10 by
bagging the most frequent three numbers. I'm not saying that this will work all
the time - just that its results might be interesting.
Use of Lottery is very simple indeed. The latest version of the application
comes with fairly up-to-date data. You will need to input any missing weeks
into the datafile and you will be shown how to do this in a moment.
If you at any time wish to get a full reliable list of the numbers, the following sources list the numbers from previous weeks:
Teletext on 3: p123
World Wide Web: http://www.csc.liv.ac.uk/users/rkl/lottery/
GETTING STARTED
---------------
Before you load !Lottery, it is neccessary for the filer to have seen the scrap directory (normally !Scrap).
INPUTTING DATA INTO THE DATAFILE
--------------------------------
Since the program works on the most frequent numbers which are picked, it is
neccessary to store all the numbers which have been picked every week. The
program has the capacity to store 1000 weeks, which will be ample (that's
around 20 years-worth of data!). To find out how many weeks are stored in the
datafile, look on the 'Info' window (you can get this from the iconbar menu).
To enter a week, choose 'Enter Week' from !Lottery's iconbar menu. This will
give a window from which you may enter the week number and seven digits; enter
the six main numbers from the Lottery for that week together with the number
for the bonus ball. When you have entered the data, click on 'Save' and the
contents of the cells will be saved to disk. If you enter a week number which
is already in the datafile, the existing week details will be overwritten with
the new data.
You can also view previous weeks data by entering the week number and clicking
on the 'Load' icon, or by altering the week number via the left and right arrow
icons to either side of the week number. You can also view a full list of the past 20 lottery results by choosing the 'List Weeks' option on the iconbar menu.
Ideally you should input data every week if you wish to use the program with any seriousness ;-) With every release of !Lottery, replacements for the file <Lottery$Dir>.Default will be released containing up-to-date lottery figures. The file format of <Lottery$Dir>.Default is not guaranteed - however, file conversion utilities may be released if there is enough demand! See the ReadMe file for more information.
PREDICTING A LOTTERY
--------------------
In order to predict a lottery, choose the 'Predict' option from the iconbar
menu. A window will appear, together with the week which will be predicted
(this is the week after the highest week number in the file). You will also
notice a status bar which tells you what's currently being calculated.
To change the prediction method, use the iconbar menu to open the 'Alter Method' window, or click 'Adjust' over the iconbar icon. From here you can pick
the following methods:
• PREDICT FREQUENT will pick the numbers which have come up most often in previous lotteries.
• PREDICT INFREQUENT will pick the numbers which have not come up (or come up the least) in previous lotteries.
• PREDICT RANDOM will choose six numbers at random.
• FAVOUR HIGH will choose the highest six numbers of the prediction as opposed
to the lower numbers - it has been proven that numbers above 31 are seldom
picked by many people because they are not 'dates' (ie. they are not birthdays,
anniversaries, etc). Therefore you are likely to win more money if these
numbers come up on a major prize.
• FAVOUR LOW is the default, and will favour the lowest six numbers of the
prediction.
• RANDOM will just pick six numbers at random between 1 and 49 (take pot luck!).
When you are ready to predict the lottery, click on the 'Predict' button on the
window. The status bar will show the sorting status (which should not take a
long time) and after a while six numbers will appear - these are your lottery
prediction.
You may also predict the lottery and print its results using a menu which is
available while the mouse pointer is over the 'Prediction' window. Click the
middle button to see this - it will print to the currently selected printer
(RiscOS printer drivers are not currently supported - sorry!).
SAVING THE PREDICTION
---------------------
It is possible to save the prediction data in a variety of formats. Each format is held in the directory '<Lottery$Dir>.Export' and is editable using a textfile editor such as Edit or StrongEd. You must generate a prediction first, else it is not possible to save the results! You can save the file in a variety of formats such as raw ASCII, HTML, Teletext, etc.
To save the results, choose the 'Export Data' option from the iconbar menu. By pressing the 'Menu' button over the 'Type' field, it is possible to choose from different file formats you can save in. Drag the file icon to a filer window and it will be saved.
To create your own export formats, add a textfile to the directory '<Lottery$Dir>.Export' with the filename you wish to appear on the Export format menu. To signify where each field will appear, enter a sequence of characters - the first character of each field is a '$' (dollar) symbol and you may pick from these:
You will get the general idea if you examine some of the files provided in the Export directory. If you write any of your own for general use, please do send me the files for release in the next version of !Lottery.
FREQUENCY OF NUMBERS
--------------------
In order to find out the frequency of numbers in the lotteries, choose the
'Frequency' option on the iconbar menu. This will show how often particular
numbers have come up on the lottery and which are the most unpopular. These
details may be printed by using the 'Print Report' option on the iconbar menu.
Should you require a better comparison, the option 'Show Graph' on the iconbar
menu will allow you to view a histogram (bar graph) which charts the frequency
of all numbers in the datafile. By pressing 'Menu' on the mouse you can also
recompile the graph (ie. update it) or save the graph as a sprite.
Since this program is shareware, I'm going to ask that if you find this program
useful then you send me some suggestions as to how I can improve it (or indeed
if you have any findings then I'd be interested to hear them). If you win, I'm
not asking for money, I'm just asking for a little recognition - there's a lot
of these 'predictor' programs appearing and the people involved are charging
upwards of £20 for them. Mine's free, I want it to stay that way (although I
wouldn't be averse to getting bought a pint for it!). Just show the press to my
door and I'll be happy to explain the theory! Having said that, if you can spare a few quid for a poor impoverished student, it might be nice!
However, there is a booklet which you can buy from me for the paltry sum of £3, which contains all these instructions in a fancy printed form together with information regarding the lottery and possible strategies for winning. Make cheques/PO's payable to me and write to the address below stating how many booklets you would like. You'll also receive the latest version of !Lottery bundled on a disk with it.
You can contact me as: Joel Rowbottom
B18 Downs Hall
Crigglestone
Wakefield
West Yorkshire
WF4 3EW
Or you can Email me as: s.j.rowbottom@dcs.hull.ac.uk
Or on Arcade: "Captain Bibble" (#303) ) Note that I don't
Or on World of Cryton: "Joel Rowbottom" (#125) ) log on very regularly -
Or on CCl4: "Captain Bibble" ) you're probably better
) sending me Email!
Or phone me on: 0378 707353
WWW support for !Lottery: http://www.dcs.hull.ac.uk/~cs6sjr/joel.html
