In the latest lottery draw held on Saturday night, the jackpot was slated at 6 million shekels. However, one lucky individual who correctly guessed all six numbers and the "strong number" ended up winning only 5 million shekels. ($1.3 million)
The reason for this almost unprecedented outcome? The highest prize in this draw turned out to be the second prize, not the first. The strong number that the winner accurately guessed – number 7 – actually reduced the prize amount by a million shekels; without that precise guess, the prize would have been larger.
The winning numbers were 10, 12, 14, 27, 28 and 31. The big question now is whether there will be a legal battle, as the anonymous winner who guessed all the numbers including the strong number might demand the higher prize amount instead of what the lottery rules stipulate.
This rare anomaly occurred because the prize amounts in the lottery draw are set differently for the first and second places. In the previous draw, one first-prize winner took home 15 million shekels, causing the first-prize amount to drop to 5 million.
Conversely, no one had won the second prize – which requires guessing six numbers without the strong number – for eight consecutive draws. This led to the second prize amount steadily increasing from 750,000 shekels to 6 million shekels.
A similar rare situation is expected in the next draw on Tuesday evening, with an even larger disparity. The first prize in the upcoming draw stands at 5 million shekels, while the second prize is 6.75 million shekels.
The odds of winning the first prize are, naturally, much lower than the odds of winning the second prize –though both are extremely slim. The probability of correctly guessing all six numbers and the strong number is over 1 in 16 million (16,273,488 to be exact), compared to 1 in 2,712,248 for winning the second prize (six numbers without the strong number).
In fact, the odds of winning the first prize are six times lower due to the strong number ranging from 1 to 7. Yet, both last Saturday and on June 1, it happened that the second prize was correctly guessed but not the first, with the last occurrence of this happening in the draw before that, on May 28.