Brian Jones says lottery numbers must be "truly random", whatever that really is (The Actuary, July 2015). But, in fact, a minimal bias is acceptable in real life, provided either no one or everyone knows what it is. Nobody selects 50 in the National Lottery because it has no chance of being drawn.
Indeed, in the National Lottery, any bias is more than offset by the 'skill' of knowing what numbers others have selected. Choosing the unpopular ones means that while the chance of winning the jackpot is practically the same, the chance of having to share it with others is significantly diminished.
Robert Steel 19 July 2015
Filed in