According to Philippine media, it has never been seen before as many as 433 people hit “six figures” in the Grand Lotto lottery.
Mathematics professor Guido David told the BBC that assuming there are 10 million entries in the lottery, the probability of winning 433 is “a number with 1,224 zeros in 1”.
“The known number of molecules in the universe consists of 80 zeros,” said David.
THE NUMBERS ARE ALL DIVIDED BY 9
However, lottery participants had to choose six numbers from 1 to 55. David said that one factor contributing to so many winners in the lottery is that all these winning numbers are divisible by 9. The numbers of the winning tickets were “09-45-36-27-18-54”.
The numbers of the descending tickets became “09-45-36-27-18-54”.
On the other hand, the winners of the jackpot will have to share 236 million 91 thousand 188 2 Philippine pesos, which equates to approximately 4 million dollars (approximately 74.3 million liras). Each of the 433 participants will receive just over $9.2k (171k lira).
WILL THERE BE AN INVESTIGATION?
Senate minority leader Koko Pimentel asked for the “questionable” results of the lottery to be released. Pimentel stated that the lottery was made with the approval of the Philippine government and drew attention to the importance of conducting an investigation for public transparency.
On the other hand, Melquiades Robles, CEO of the Philippines HPLottery Bureau (PCSO), said that there is no irregularity in the flow of the game and emphasized that participants tend to bet on strings of numbers.
Terence Tao, a professor of mathematics at the University of California at Los Angeles, said such a string of numbers is rare, but “hundreds of lotteries are held every day around the world, and statistically the result would not be surprising.