A:
The draw numbers shown in Advantage Gold are in essence record numbers that are automatically
calculated when a drawing is added to a lotto history file. They are
not physically stored in the database, so we cannot change them.
Our draw numbers were never meant to be the same as the lottery's draw numbers,
and there are several reasons they may differ.
Some lotteries don't even start with #1
For example, California Fantasy 5 lists their first drawing as #81 and increases
draw numbers from there, so they do not match our draw numbers, which start at #1.
You can download their entire history from California Lotto Site
to see that the first drawing they list is the same as ours.
Some lotteries skip draw numbers in the middle of the game
For example, Republic of South Africa Lotto is missing draw numbers #656 through #710.
In the past, they used to list their first drawing as #56 for the date of 3/11/2000, but they've now adjusted how they show draw numbers.
On March 31, 2007 RSA Lotto held draw #655. They did not hold any drawings for several months, but started again on October 13, 2007 which they labeled as draw #711.
You can view their history to see the missing months and draw number incrementing from the RSA official website here.
Our file has to continue from #655 to #656, so it appears that drawings are missing when they are not.
Republic of South Africa Lotto Plus is even worse because not only is the game missing the drawing the drawings from 2007, but the very first Lotto Plus drawing in 2003 starts as draw #306.
This throws off the draw numbers by almost 400 draws.
Some lotteries have drastically changed their number format
Though we usually simply add on to the existing file when a game has changed format (and then lock the file game range to start at the change after there has been enough history),
this is not always the case.
If a game's number format has completely changed, we may have to create a new game file and start when the game changed.
Missing History
For some games, we may not have had access to the entire history.
For example, Massachusetts Megabucks.
Unfortunately, the Megabucks history is only shown back to 2000 on the
official website, so we can't check the drawings farther back than that,
if they even existed (it's possible this game started with a higher draw number).
We did check as far as we were able to, so
you can be assured our history is complete since 2000.
However, we lock the range for this game to only use the current number format,
which changed in May 2009, as including old ranges only skews the
data. You can change the range (Press F3-Change Range from a chart) yourself if you want to include old results.
If the draw number for a game is only off by a few, this is most likely from a few
missed drawings, but we cannot correct those without knowing the dates of the missed drawings.
If you know of incorrect or missing drawings, please let us know of
the dates along with the game information and we will do our best to update the file.
History File May Have Reached Size Limit
DOS files have a size limitation. If a lottery has many thousands of drawings and our file has gotten too large, the first drawing will be removed in order to make room for the most recent one.
In this case, the final draw number will appear to never change, because the last drawing will always be the same number.
There is nothing we can do about this. See more information here: FAQ124: Is there a limit to the number of drawings in an SLH file?
Mega Millions and Powerball Bonus Only files
The Mega Millions and Powerball Bonus Only files do not include the entire history of the bonus from these games.
The reason Mega Millions' bonus only file only includes the current
number format's drawings is because the game went from a higher number
to a lower one (in 2005 the game went from 52 mega numbers down to
46), and our program cannot store numbers higher than the current game
structure. The same is the case for Powerball, which went from 42
power balls down to 39 in 2005 and then down to 35 numbers in 2012.
It is recommended to only strategize with the drawings from the most current number format anyway,
so you do not have some numbers that are skewed from having a longer range to be drawn.
If you require using the old bonus numbers in the history,
you can use the regular Mega Millions or Powerball history and set the program to use Bonus Only by pressing Alt-B.
You will also need to change the range back to start at Draw #1. We have the files auto locked to start range at the first drawing of the current number format.
The regular files use the main set of numbers in the file structure, which in both
cases is larger than the bonus ball has ever been, so they can include all of the numbers.
However, it is not recommended to include drawings from old number formats.
