At first glance, it may seem as though the numbers used by the Florida Lottery are random, and that is to be expected. Florida certainly cannot have patterns arising from the winning Lottery numbers, else people discover that pattern and start winning the lottery constantly. However, despite the intentions of the data to be completely random, there is a very obvious pattern that emerged from this data set.
Here are the winning numbers separated by order:
While prior to the 21st Century all the numbers seemed to be completely randomized, after the year 2000, each numbered-place 1-7 seems to gravitate around a distribution of approximately 10-15 numbers- much better odds that the original 60 number spread of the old lottery format. Each winning number cluster is distinct from the other, meaning that you have a much higher probability of guessing each number if you breakdown the lottery by winning number slots. This pattern effectively improves your odds of winning from the pre-21st century odds of 1 in 2,799,360,000,000 (60^7) to a manageable 1 in 35,831,808 (12^7). It is unclear from my data whether this is due to a formatting change of the Lottery form itself, or if this is an interesting pattern that can help Floridians win the lottery. I will test my hypothesis by moving to Florida and playing the lottery every week. If I become a millionaire then I can confirm my hypothesis.