Rare occurrence in popular draw game
By Kate Northrop
Whoever won in an Ohio Lottery Pick 4 drawing last week had a chance to win again using the same numbers, with two drawings in a row producing the same results.
Two Pick 4 drawings produced the same number combinations back-to-back in Ohio last week.
On Oct. 2, the Ohio Pick 4 evening game drew the numbers 6-9-9-4. Players matching those numbers with a $1 wager in exact order won a $5,000 prize.
The very next drawing, the Oct. 3 midday draw, produced the same four numbers in the same order.
"The odds of the Pick 4 game are 1 in 10,000 and the odds do not change, so the probability of a number being drawn more than once is high," Lottery Deputy Director of Communications Danielle Frizzi-Babb told Dayton Daily News.
Since every drawing is an independent event, there is an equal chance of 1 in 10,000 that every number combination will be drawn in a single drawing.
Given the large number of Pick 4 drawings in Ohio's history, there have been more opportunities for a rare event like this to occur. Before the October 2 evening and October 3 midday drawings, there had been 22,522 Pick 4 drawings.
According to Lottery Post's Combinations Analysis for the Ohio Lottery's Pick 4 game, 18 number combinations have been drawn twice this year (2024), although none of them were in back-to-back drawings.
"The October 2 and 3 drawings are the only time the same number has been drawn in back-to-back drawings this year," Frizzi-Babb added.
Players can view a complete list of odds and prize payouts for Pick 4 by visiting Lottery Post's Ohio Prizes and Odds page.
Pick 4 drawings take place two times a day, at 12:29 p.m. and 7:29 p.m. EST, seven days a week. Players may choose their own four numbers or select the Quick Pick option to allow the computer to choose numbers for you.
All winning numbers, prizes, and odds are published on Lottery Post's Ohio Lottery Results page right after each drawing.
If it's like the 2017 AZ lotto fail, where a hardware failure resulted in the same numbers being chosen, then pick the same numbers again and win again.
Here are the news stories about that:
(Obviously this incident is not related to this Ohio story, but makes for interesting reading of a similar topic!)
Sorry to ask this AGAIN and ICR where to find out the information.
Is OH! pick 3/4 still mechanical ball drawings?
BTW CA did well with secondary PB last night...better than Powerplay= $2.31 million or thereabout!
You see the drawing type for any game by visiting the lottery results page and tapping on the game logo. Here is the Ohio Lottery Results page: https://www.lotterypost.com/results/oh
Thats why I play my winning number again after it hits .never know what they'll pull up again 💯🙌🏻😁
On Tuesday the KY pick 4 had the same number boxed on Midday and Evening.
Cool! Much easier to do that however — 1 in 417 vs 1 in 10,000 for a straight repeat.
Thank you Todd.
Saw a Tesla just now parking lot. 6666. Walked towards the store and said let me look again....6666. Car by the store 081; first three of my SSAN are 018...must play on line now!
Slip in a 1010 to play for Tesla today. (10/10 event tonight)
Good idea, $2 str/box so I can get $10K!!
KY lottery just joined the $50 scratch ticket club to win up to $5 million. Offers two top prizes valued @ $3.4 million. Now if any are won in Louisville, the haters of Facebook will have a field day!
Happened in Md too, same day.
This is not rare coincidence this is cheating in controlled environment. Because it happened to the p3 # also. 651 then 615. They need go back to letting humans pick the number live. That's more believable. Another thing is locking out combinations such as 4444 etc. If it is random why stop us from playing certain combinations. Cheaters!!!
Involving the same 3 digits: 4, 6, and 9.
Well as luck would have it, my last four came in str/box last night....$5K or so out the window 'cause I didn't play it! ($2 bet str/box).
Why would the same 3 digits reappear in such a rare phenomenon???
Maybe they have some special characteristics?
I don't know.
Go back and look at live drawings . Were the lottery workers wearing the same outfits. Were they the same people. Did they just play the wrong tape on the second drawing ?
LOL
Dude stop with the conspiracy theories there is no cheating going on. As far as locking people out of playing quads such as 4444. The lottery is only allow to sell a certain amount of each number before it has to stop sell that number. This is why the clerk or a machine will not sell repeating number on a certain days because it is already sold out. There are some stores that will print out a bunch of repeating numbers and then sell it to the customer when they ask for that number. If YOU think there is cheating going on, don't play the lottery. No one is forcing you to play, it is that simple.
100% correct.
Not sure what the computer says playing @ home with sold out tickets, but with the self service machine it makes your purchase of say 4444. Next screen will pop up saying liability limit exceeded which in KY is still $1 million. Don't play those type of #'s often enough. Yes, of course an email sent to KY lottery about raising it to $2 million and said good idea, we'll forward it along. Nothing happened.
In somewhat related news, Florida has drawn 1028 in consecutive day drawings (Oct. 17-18). Even better for those turning 16 on Oct. 28, the night drawing on the 18th was 2008.
Florida's lottery still uses balls.
Ohio is ping pong ball right?