Lucky Number Generator 🍀

How to use the lucky number generator

1. Type how many numbers you want in How many numbers? The default is 1, and the most you can ask for at once is 1,000.
2. Set the range with from and to. The defaults, 1 to 49, match many six-number lotteries. The lowest start is 0, the highest end has to be at least 1, and both must be whole numbers.
3. Leave Unique numbers ticked if no number should appear twice, as in a lottery draw. Untick it to allow repeats, as when you roll a die several times.
4. Press Get Lucky Numbers. The result lists your numbers in the order they were drawn.

The range must contain at least as many whole numbers as you request. Asking for 10 numbers between 1 and 5 produces an error, and so does a range whose start is higher than its end. With Unique numbers ticked, the message suggests either a wider range or removing the tick.

Every whole number from the start to the end, both included, has exactly the same chance of being drawn. The tool uses the random number generator that your browser provides for security work, which avoids the patterns and biases of simple generators.

What are lucky numbers?

A lucky number is one that a person or a culture associates with good fortune. Which numbers qualify varies widely. Seven is the best-known lucky number in many Western countries. In Chinese-speaking communities eight is prized, because its pronunciation resembles the word for prosperity, while four is avoided because it sounds like the word for death. Thirteen is considered unlucky in much of the English-speaking world, and some buildings skip it when numbering floors; in Italy the unlucky number is more often seventeen.

Personal lucky numbers usually come from birthdays, anniversaries, a sports shirt number or a date that once went well. Because there is no way to check such beliefs, a random draw is a fair way to settle on a number when you do not have a favourite.

Is there such a thing as a lucky number?

In a fair draw, no. The balls, dice or random generators used in lotteries have no memory and no preferences, so a number cannot be "due" because it has been missing for weeks, and it cannot be "hot" because it appeared last time. Believing otherwise is known as the gambler's fallacy.

Take a six-number draw from 49. Any particular number is in the winning set with probability 6 ÷ 49 = 12.24%, whether it is 7, 13, 49 or the one you picked on your birthday. The sequence 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 is exactly as likely as any other sequence of six numbers; it just looks less random to us.

What does differ between choices is how many other people made the same choice. Lots of players favour dates, so numbers up to 31 are picked more often than higher ones. If the jackpot is shared among everyone with the winning combination, a draw made of birthdays is more likely to be split. A random pick spreads across the full range and does nothing to your chance of winning, though it can reduce the chance of sharing a prize.

Lottery odds in numbers

The number of ways to choose k numbers from n without repeats and without regard to order is the binomial coefficient:

C(n, k) = n! ÷ (k! × (n − k)!)

For a 6-from-49 lottery that is C(49, 6) = 13,983,816, so a single ticket has a 1 in 13,983,816 chance of matching all six numbers.

Smaller prizes are far more reachable. Matching exactly 5 of the 6 drawn numbers (with one of your numbers coming from the 43 not drawn) can happen in 6 × 43 = 258 ways, so the chance is 258 ÷ 13,983,816, about 1 in 54,201. Matching exactly 3 can happen in 20 × 12,341 = 246,820 ways, about 1 in 57.

Bigger games have much longer odds. A game that asks for 5 numbers from 69 and one more from 26 has 11,238,513 × 26 = 292,201,338 equally likely tickets. Buying ten tickets makes your chance ten times larger, but ten times a very small number is still a very small number.

Can lottery numbers be predicted?

Not in any fair lottery. Past results are independent of future ones, so studying them, using "hot" and "cold" lists or buying a prediction system cannot raise your chance of winning. At best such methods reshuffle which combination you buy; at worst they cost money.

This generator makes no claim to predict anything. It is a convenient, unbiased way to pick numbers, whether for a lottery ticket, a raffle, a bingo-style game, a team number or a decision you would rather leave to chance. For a single number in any range, the random number generator is also available, and for rolling dice there is the dice roller.

Responsible gambling

• Treat lottery tickets as entertainment with a small, fixed budget, never as an investment or a way to solve money problems.
• Decide how much you will spend before you play, and stop when you reach it. Do not try to win back losses.
• Remember that the expected return of a lottery ticket is below its price, because a large share of the money goes to prizes for other players, costs and good causes.
• If gambling is causing you or someone you know stress, debt or conflict, a national helpline or a local support service can offer free, confidential help.

This tool produces random numbers for fun and general use. It does not improve the odds of any game and is not gambling or financial advice. See the disclaimer.