Satan's Sixes Sunday

People seem to think that anything that has to do with numbers is Satanic since Satan is identified with a number ("666"). Kooks are afraid of Social Security numbers. Cars' license plates are Satanic. Drivers' licenses are the mark of the beast!

What then could be more Satanic than Lotto?

The California Lotto had its first drawing on October 14, 1986. Since I knew that Lotto and Satan were in cahoots, I decided to base my numbers on Satan. To win the Big Bucks you had to correctly choose the six numbers that will drawn from the numbers 1 through 49. Order didn't matter.

I came up with a surefire scheme. The prime factorization of 666 is:

• 2
• 3
• 3
• 37

That is, 666 = 2 x 3 x 3 x 37.

There are exactly six factors of 666 that are in the range of 1 to 49. Well, seven if you count 1 but it just gets in the way and isn't a product of the prime factors. These six numbers are:

• 2
• 3
• 6 (2 x 3)
• 9 (3 x 3)
• 18 (2 x 3 x 3)
• 37

Those were my numbers. Sure to win since they're based on The Mark of the Beast.

I started using those number from the first Lotto drawing. Satan, like god, apparently doesn't like people to try to manipulate fate. They never won.

I didn't keep my first Lotto ticket. It didn't win so I didn't have to turn it in for my winnings but it didn't make it to my file. A later one did:

 because it has a special serial number on its back:

This ticket didn't win even though it was very Satanic.

I played Quick Picks after a while. That method lets the system choose random numbers for you. I never won big bucks that way, either.

One Quick Pick ticket had 666 in its front side serial number:

I eventually quit playing the Lotto. As they say, the lottery is a tax on those who don't understand math.

Satan's number sometimes wins:

But in cases like this a disproportionate number of people will have to share the winnings. As the article said, the odds of this number winning are 1 in 1,000 but the number of people betting on it is surely more than one in a thousand. Special numbers like this and Lotto combinations that are dates are played more often than would happen from purely random choices. So even when Satan helps you win the Lotto with such numbers you'll have to split the pot with more people than when you play winning numbers chosen at random.

You just can't rig the system.