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The Irish Lotto drought
How likely is it there would be no winners in the Irish lottery?
The BBC reports on the lack of recent winners in the Irish Lotto game. Bernard Durkan, a Dáil Éireann member, called for an investigation:
A spokesperson for the Irish National Lottery said the 23-week rollover was “unprecedented”.
The Irish lottery bi-weekly top prize has rolled over since June and has been capped since September at €19m (£15.9m).
Release those big money balls, again
Premier Lotteries Ireland DAC operates the Irish national lottery. There are several different games.
The main game — Lotto — has 47 balls. Each draw selects six main balls, plus one ‘bonus’ ball. To win the jackpot, tickets must match the first six drawn balls.
The last jackpot win was on Saturday 5th June 2021. As at Tuesday 23rd November, there have been 48 Lotto draws without a jackpot winner.
How likely is this event?
In a fair machine, each potential combination has equal chance. The probability of winning the Irish Lotto jackpot is about one in 10.7m.
How many tickets are there in each game? These count do not appear to be in the public domain. The ‘Irish…