LotteryDB
Discussion and Instructions
The program was written because there would be lottery tickets from past drawings laying around the house. It's a distance to the nearest store that sells lottery tickets to check them so I wrote this program. Hope you find it useful also.
While the instructions below are for the NY State Lottery they will apply to all state lotteries. This program has been tested on the Droid X and the Motorola Backflip. If you have a question or comment please click on the link to the left and post it on the bulletin board.
This is the main screen from which you pick what lottery game you are playing. For jackpot games the button contains the name of the game and the amount of the current jackpot. Above each button the last drawing date and the next drawing date are displayed. Press the button of the game you want to play and you will be taken to the screen that contains the winnning numbers and you can enter and save your numbers.
In this particular example you see that the NY Lotto has a "Check back later" message. To save from un-necessary checks, the program only updates its database once a day. When you get to the menu screen you'll have the ability to Force an Update at which time the current jackpot will be displayed on the game's button.
When the program updates its database, for jackpot games the program retrieves the winning numbers for the past year. You can check any ticket up to a year old from this database. For daily games the program retrieves the winning numbers for the past couple of months.
The NY Lottery has too many games to fit on one screen. Just scroll down to click the All Done button.
Let's go check the Mega Millions game.
This screen shows the latest winning numbers. It will also tell you what matches you need to win a prize.
The spinners are where you pick the numbers you played. The last spinner is for the MegaBall. The program will place your numbers in the box and monitor how many matches you have. (For daily games where you can win by Boxing, Summing numbers etc., no matches are displayed. The permutation of possible number combinations plus the same numbers being entered more than once is very complex.)
Also on the screen you can pick another drawing date up to a year old. The next screen will show that.
While you do not have to save your numbers, if you play the same numbers over and over again you can check those picks against any winning numbers from a drawing date up to a year ago.
Let's go pick another drawing date.
On this screen you can pick a drawing date up to a year ago.
Scroll down until you find the drawing date, then press on that date.
You will be taken back to the prior screen where you will see the winning numbers for that drawing date. You can also enter the numbers you picked and save them.
The next screen will show the menus.
By clicking on the menu button you will be given some menu choices.
View Picked Numbers will bring you to a screen where the numbers you picked are compared to the winning numbers for the drawing date you selected. The default is the latest drawing date but you can change this by clicking the new drawing date button and you will be taken to the prior screen.
Prizes take you to the State's website where you can see all of the prizes for the game on a date you choose. The default is the latest drawing date.
Force Update updates the database. As mentioned earlier the program only checks for updates once per day. If the current jackpot isn't posted when the update occurs, click on this button to get the jackpot. Some states don't promptly update their website with the latest jackpot. In NY State the latest jackpot isn't posted until the following morning.
View Frequency shows how often the numbers have been picked over the past year.
The Help menu is a condensed version of this webpage.
Let's go see how often numbers have been picked.
This screen show the frequencies of the numbers and the mega ball for the last year. Frequencies are only calculated for jackpot games.
The first four colums are sorted by number. As of the latest drawing date, the number 1 has been picked 9 times as a regular number and once as a mega ball.
The last four columns are sorted by frequency - from least picked to most picked. Over the last year the number 49 has been picked only 3 times and the number 4 has never come up as a mega ball. You may want to consider using the least picked numbers for your next game.
The next screen will show your saved numbers compared to the winning numbers.
This screen will show all of the numbers you have saved and compares them to a drawing date you choose. The default is the latest drawing but you can change that by clicking on the New Drawing Date button on the input screen.
In the left column you will see how many matches you have had for a particular drawing date.
This screen is handy if you play the same numbers over and over again. You will not have to re-enter your numbers, just go to this screen and see if you've won.
That's about it. If there is anything you find confusing please post a message on the bulletin board. The hope is that you find this program useful.