Millions of people play the lottery every week. With so many tickets sold, you might assume that if enough tickets were sold to cover all possible combinations, there would be a guaranteed winner every draw. Yet jackpots often roll over with no winner. Why does this happen?
Why Jackpots Sometimes Roll Over
The short answer: no one bought the winning combination. But with millions of players, you might think the odds are in the players' favor. The reality is that random number selection is the problem — and it leaves many potential winning combinations completely unplayed.
The Hidden Impact of Duplicate Numbers
Most players pick numbers using Quick Picks or personal favorites. While these feel random, they create a hidden issue: duplicate ticket combinations. Every duplicate ticket means another unique combination is left unplayed — and that means fewer chances for the winning ticket to be in circulation.
How Lottery Odds Really Work
Take the popular 6-from-49 lottery format. The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 13,983,816. That's also the total number of unique ticket combinations possible. In theory, if all 13,983,816 combinations were played, a winner would be guaranteed. In practice, random play leaves many combinations untouched.
The Math That Explains the Problem
Let's say only 10% of all possible combinations were purchased — about 1,398,382 tickets. Many would guess that means a 10% chance of a jackpot winner. In reality, because of duplicates, the true chance is closer to 9.52%.
The effect worsens as more tickets are sold. The math comes from the Coupon Collector problem:
Where N is the odds of the lottery
Where n is the percentage value
Here's what the coverage looks like at different ticket sales levels:
| % Played | Chosen Numbers Odds | Random Selections | Expected Duplicates | Random Odds |
| 10% | 1,398,382 | 1,330,736 | 67,646 | 9.52% |
| 20% | 2,796,763 | 2,534,836 | 261,927 | 18.13% |
| 30% | 4,195,145 | 3,624,351 | 570,794 | 25.92% |
| 40% | 5,593,526 | 4,610,184 | 983,342 | 32.97% |
| 50% | 6,991,908 | 5,502,203 | 1,489,705 | 39.35% |
| 60% | 8,390,290 | 6,309,335 | 2,080,955 | 45.12% |
| 70% | 9,788,671 | 7,039,659 | 2,749,012 | 50.34% |
| 80% | 11,187,053 | 7,700,483 | 3,486,570 | 55.07% |
| 90% | 12,585,434 | 8,298,421 | 4,287,013 | 59.34% |
| 100% | 13,983,816 | 8,839,458 | 5,144,358 | 63.21% |
With 13,983,816 people buying tickets, random selection only gives a 63.21% chance of producing a jackpot winner. Coordinated selection of unique combinations could make that chance 100%.
How ChosenNumbers.com Solves It
ChosenNumbers.com eliminates duplicates by assigning each player a unique ticket combination. If enough players participate to cover all combinations, a jackpot win becomes a certainty — not a matter of chance. The closer we get to full coverage, the better the odds become.
Turning Lottery Chance into Certainty
As long as players stick to Quick Picks and favorite numbers, jackpots will continue to roll over. But if players coordinate and use unique combinations, we could see guaranteed winners every draw. That's the power of removing randomness from the equation — and that's exactly what ChosenNumbers.com is designed to do.