I'm no statistician so maybe somebody who knows something about this can weigh in. Here in the United States there are two main multi-state lotteries that I am aware of. One of them is called the "Mega Millions" lottery of which twelve states participate in.
There are two drawings per week and the lottery is essentially a Pick-6 drawing which means 5 balls with values between 1 and 56, followed by the 6th ball which is called the Mega Ball with a value between 1 and 46.
I know this ain't political but I find it interesting and perhaps some other might too. More below.
Here's what's weird, I haven't seen any news stories on this but I haven't looked either. Since April 29th, there have been six drawings, the most recent ending May 16th, the "Mega Ball" value has been the number 26 four times. That's four times the "Mega Ball" has come up as the number 26. Even more astounding is that the "Mega Ball" turned up the number 26 three times in a row!!
Now, wouldn't you say there should be some sort of investigation? What are the odds (don't ask me - all of the odds for winning are on the site) but of the same number appearing in the "Mega Ball" position 3 times in a row and 4 out of six drawings?????
Here's a link to the Last 25 results. I got a name for this one....wait for it...
"lottery gate"
I'm just kidding :) Don't know if its just the weight of the ball or what. There could be nothing illegal or deliberate about this.
[Update]
What? No one has contacted Conyers yet? ;)
Scipio in a thread below has a really good explantion:
The probability of hitting 26 three times in a row is 46^-3, or about 0.00125% - when you're dealing with events that have more than one component, you take the probabilities of each event combine (multiply) them. Having said that, the probability of the next drawing being 26 is still only 46^-1, which is the expected 2.17%.
Thus, when you're looking at things like this, it's important to remember (and make clear) exactly what probabilities you're talking about - specifically, to differentiate between the probability of a single specific event happening (the next number being a 26) and then probability of a general compound event (drawing two 26s in a row).
As for the probability of four out of six drawings being a 26, you take the number of 4-combinations from a set of 6 (C(6,4)) and multiply that by the probability of hitting four 26s and two non-26s (46^-4*(45/46)^2). This comes out to a probability of 0.0000032, or about 1 in 312 Million.