Washington DC Pick 5 1 in 200 million oddsPrev TopicNext Topic

• jimjwright

  

  iOS Developer

  Crested Butte, CO
  United States
  Member #69,861
  January 18, 2009
  1,865 Posts
  Online
  Apr 18, 2026, 10:35 am

  ▲▼
  In response to Newkids06

  Quote: Originally posted by Newkids06 on Apr 18, 2026

  Omg Jim that may be the issue. They need to be audited immediately cause this sounds like the same thing happening. Digits can't be duplicated. Omg I have thrown away majority of my tickets

  The images below are the current state for all pick 3 and pick 4 games in U.S. and Canada in relation to skip count for doubles.  My pick 5 draw history has lapsed so cannot provide the current state.

  The first image is for Pick 3.  Its still believable.

  The 2nd image is for Pick 4.  Fairly unbelievable.

  At what skip count would you send a email alert to verify the software?

  j
• Tucker Black

  

  Colorado
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  Member #173,294
  February 25, 2016
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  Apr 18, 2026, 2:34 pm

  ▲▼

  all draw times 11:30 PM

  DC Pick 3

  April 16 533

  April 14 737

   

  DC Pick 4

  April 16 2247

  April 15 0944

  April 14 5353

   

  Unlikely this is a software glitch. Presumably they use the same RNG for pick 3, pick 4 and pick 5.
• jimjwright

  

  iOS Developer

  Crested Butte, CO
  United States
  Member #69,861
  January 18, 2009
  1,865 Posts
  Online
  Apr 18, 2026, 3:09 pm

  ▲▼
  In response to Tucker Black

  Quote: Originally posted by Tucker Black on Apr 18, 2026

  all draw times 11:30 PM

  DC Pick 3

  April 16 533

  April 14 737

   

  DC Pick 4

  April 16 2247

  April 15 0944

  April 14 5353

   

  Unlikely this is a software glitch. Presumably they use the same RNG for pick 3, pick 4 and pick 5.

  Those are the late draws.  The draws in question are the midday and evening draws.  There is no late draw for Pick 5.

  For the month of April there have only been singles for Washington D.C. in the midday draw, and the evening draw for Pick 3, Pick 4, and Pick 5.  It's a big deal if people are purchasing tickets that have no chance of winning.  Seems worth investigating to me.
• Tucker Black

  

  Colorado
  United States
  Member #173,294
  February 25, 2016
  1,135 Posts
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  Apr 18, 2026, 3:29 pm

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  In response to jimjwright

  Quote: Originally posted by jimjwright on Apr 18, 2026

  Those are the late draws.  The draws in question are the midday and evening draws.  There is no late draw for Pick 5.

  For the month of April there have only been singles for Washington D.C. in the midday draw, and the evening draw for Pick 3, Pick 4, and Pick 5.  It's a big deal if people are purchasing tickets that have no chance of winning.  Seems worth investigating to me.

  Originally I thought that the DC Lottery was only picking singles for every single drawing. It's unlikely but possible.

  Then you posted a link to the TN Lottery's software glitch where only singles could be drawn (thus, the unwinnable tickets). So I looked at the recent drawings for the DC Lottery and found five counterexamples in just the last four days.

  Clearly, this is not a software glitch. They're just random numbers behaving in a random way.
• jimjwright

  

  iOS Developer

  Crested Butte, CO
  United States
  Member #69,861
  January 18, 2009
  1,865 Posts
  Online
  Apr 18, 2026, 3:42 pm

  ▲▼
  In response to Tucker Black

  Quote: Originally posted by Tucker Black on Apr 18, 2026

  Originally I thought that the DC Lottery was only picking singles for every single drawing. It's unlikely but possible.

  Then you posted a link to the TN Lottery's software glitch where only singles could be drawn (thus, the unwinnable tickets). So I looked at the recent drawings for the DC Lottery and found five counterexamples in just the last four days.

  Clearly, this is not a software glitch. They're just random numbers behaving in a random way.

  Ok we can disagree.  Your counter examples are only for the late draws.

  35 consecutive draws for Pick 3 in the Midday/Evening have been singles.
  35 consecutive draws for Pick 4 in the Midday/Evening have been singles.
  35 consecutive draws for Pick 5 in the Midday/Evening have been singles.

  Seems suspicious to me.  The more balls you add to a draw for the Pick N games the harder it is to not have a duplicate/repeat number but not for Washington D.C. at the moment.

  It's possible the software takes a different path when generating draws for the midday/evening draws versus the late draws.

  I have been a software engineer or director of software engineering since 1985 and I have seen some pretty weird bugs in 40 years.

  I have worked as a software contractor for state lottery mobile apps in fixing barcode scanning issues.  In every single case the original app was outsourced and they had 0, I repeat 0 regression tests to verify updates to the software.