A:
The draw numbers shown in Advantage Plus 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.
Another example is the Republic of South Africa Lotto, who lists their first drawing as #56 for the date of 3/11/2000, which is the same as the first drawing date in our file.
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, and the change in draw numbers is the same
from the 1/29/11 drawing as it was in the 1/1/00 drawing, so
you can be assured our history is complete at least as far back as the past 11 years.
However, this game really should be locked to only use the current number format,
which changed in May 2009, as including old ranges only skews the
data.
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.
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. Unfortunately, there is nothing we can
do about these files until we've finished our Windows release, as it
is a DOS limitation.
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.
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.
