1 in 331 billion chance: Same New York lottery numbers drawn twice in one day
It’s nothing short of a lottery miracle.
The same five numbers were drawn twice in a single day for the New York Lottery’s Take 5 five games Thursday — leading to a jaw-dropping display of astronomical odds, lottery reps and experts said Friday.
The results of Thursday’s drawing for the game amazingly yielded the numbers 18, 21, 30, 35, and 36 during both the midday and evening drawings — the odds of which experts put at more than 1 in 330 billion.
“That’s 1 in 331 billion chance,” Harvard statistics professor Mark Glickman told The Post. “[It] is extraordinarily rare.”
Those odds are much, much longer than hitting Saturday’s $800 million Powerball drawing, which is a mere 1 in 292 million.
Lottery spokesman Brad Maione said the stunning results were not a mistake.
“They’re the same,” he said. “The numbers were properly vetted and verified on site.”
The strange stroke of luck offered New Yorkers the unusual chance to win twice in a single day with the same numbers — though no one picked the same 5 numbers both times.
Bodega workers said customers in the Big Apple were thrilled by the long-odds drawing, with many players winning smaller cash prizes.
“I know like 4 or 5 people that won yesterday, my customers,” said Ahmed Eli, 38, of Ridgewood Finest Deli in Queens. “I heard a lot of people talking about it this morning.”
He added, “It was cute, a lot of people were very happy for that.”
In total, 52 people took home the first prize of $715 each during the evening drawing Thursday. There were no first-prize winners for the afternoon drawing. The total prize pool was $37,000.
To play the game, people choose five numbers between 1 and 39 by 2:15 p.m. for the afternoon drawing or 10:20 p.m. for the evening drawing.
Players would have had to buy two tickets to win with the same numbers twice Thursday.
Prizes start from matching just two numbers and prices increase up to the jackpot by matching all five numbers.