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Lotteries and Strange Sequences
The numbers 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 came up in the South African PowerBall draw.
Unlikely events can happen. In South Africa, their PowerBall lottery saw the selection of balls numbered 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9. The PowerBall was 10.
This article looks at the chance of sequences in the South African PowerBall lottery.
Release those big money balls
Ithuba Holdings operates the national lottery in South Africa. There are several games, including two PowerBall draws. This is like the Thunderball in the UK national lottery games.
There are 50 balls (numbered 1 to 50) in the first machine. Of these 50, each draw selects five. There is a second machine which selects the PowerBall — numbered from 1 to 20.
Tickets that match all five balls plus the PowerBall win the jackpot.
In a fair machine, each possible combination has equal chance. The probability of each possible combination is 1 in 42.4m.
