Lotto Wheeling Software: Fill Lottery Wheels with Player's Picks, Own Numbers
By Ion Saliu, Founder of Lottery Wheeling Mathematics
Written on August 3, 2002; greatly upgraded thereafter.
I can see how big lottery wheeling is with many people! After I wrote the lotto wheeling e-book (The myth of lotto wheels, abbreviated lottery systems), I have received questions on reduced lottery systems, lotto wheels, wheeling formula, convert combination files to wheels, lotto wheels from positional ranges, wheeling algorithm… The search page has also been busier than ever with similar searches.
My gesture to the devoted lottery wheelers is the lotto wheeling software programs: FillWheel and especially LottoWheeler. That's how I convert the theoretical lotto systems, or pointers (1,2,3,4,5,6 etc.) to combinations of real picks (29,13,33,2,44,39 etc.) The two lottery wheeling applications are available from the software download site (see Resources in Lotto, Lottery Software, Lotto Wheeling at the end of this Web page).
LottoWheeler is the preferred choice, given its superior functionality. It covers the Powerball, Mega Millions, and Euromillions lottery games as well.
The program takes a source lotto wheel file with theoretical numbers or pointers: 1,2,3,4,5,6 etc. The lottery player types her/his lotto picks - i.e. the lotto numbers to actually play. The picks replace the numbers in the original system file. This process is what they call lottery or lotto wheeling; the software is known as lotto wheeler.
Finally, the program saves the new lotto combinations to a destination file. The destination file is a simple text file you can open to view or print in Notepad++, MDIEditor Lotto WE, or any text editor. The program LottoWheeler also parses the source file to make sure it is in the correct format.
The lotto wheels come from many sources, especially from lottery books. The wheels are now available in gigantic quantity online — mostly free. Typos are a way of life. My lotto wheeler programs can even fix some typos and other errors. FillWheel and LottoWheeler work with any text file, with up to 100 numbers per combination and thousands of lotto combinations (lines).
The aforementioned lotto wheeling programs do not come with any lotto or lottery wheels. But other lottery/lotto software programs created by yours truly can create countless wheels or reduced (abbreviated) lottery systems. The lotto wheels my software creates have two special qualities: The lottery systems are balanced (i.e., every lotto number is equally distributed; no number bias) and randomized (i.e., the generating process follows real lottery drawings, which is a process ruled by randomness). Look for lotto wheeling programs at this incredible site with the CheckWheel radical in their file names.
The lottery wheeling programs work with these types of lotto games: 5, 6, 7-number jackpot lotto, Powerball, Mega Millions, Thunderball, Euromillions. Of course, specific lotto wheels are needed. You can also find at this Web site unique lotto systems (wheels) for these particular lottery games.
Here is a snapshot of the best software for converting lotto wheels (theoretical systems) to tickets with the player's real lotto picks.
How the best lottery wheeling software works –
First, it needs a lotto wheel file in text format — the source file. For example, this is an excellent lotto-6 wheel, for 18 numbers, assuring the minimum guarantee 4 of 6 in 45 lines (combinations). Right-click to download, left-click to open in browser: Lotto Wheel: 18 Lotto-6 Numbers, 45 Lines. My creation is definitely one of the best lotto wheels out there... guaranteed!
This is the correct format for a wheel source file to run LottoWheeler - with 6-number lotto wheels. Copy and paste only the 45 combinations and save the content to a simple text file (e.g. SYS-18in45.46 with exactly 45 lines). You can use Notepad, MDIEditor Lotto, or any text editor for the easy task.
Second, the lotto wheeling software requires a destination file. It is recommended to use a different name for the destination file. This is the file that will hold the user's picks: The actual lotto numbers that will replace the theoretical numbers in the lottery wheel.
Thirdly, the lotto wheeling software requires the size of the combinations: How many lotto numbers in each line of the wheel (the theoretical lotto system). If your lottery wheel is for 5-number games, then 5 is the number of combinations per line. Every line in the lotto-5 wheel must have exactly 5 numbers per combination. The numbers must be separated by comma or blank space.
Fourth, the lottery wheeler needs to know the biggest number in the lotto system. The software assumes you already saw the lotto wheel (e.g. by opening it in text editor). You already know that it crunches N numbers. For example, an 18-number lotto 6 wheel that assures the 4 in 6 minimum guarantee. The biggest number in the lotto system is 18.
Finally, the lottery wheeling programs need to know your lotto picks. You can either type your picks manually, at the screen prompt; or, you can save your lotto picks to a text file first. In the latter case, you might have the lotto numbers generated by a lottery strategy software program, such as SkipSystem. You simply direct the lotto wheeler to your system file that holds the lottery numbers you want to play.
Here is a sample of a text file with lotto picks — numbers to be printed on the lottery cards or play slips, grids, etc. It is recommended to shuffle the numbers in the line(s) in order to apply the randomized feature of lottery wheeling.
43 22 29 1 33 12 7 9 44 32 19 9 25 16 15 38 48 31
Sample filename: Picks-18.46. Any easy-to-remember name will do.
Here is a screenshot of the lottery wheeler applied to 6-number lotto games.
So, you created the output file that converted your SYS18.46 input lotto wheel to WHEEL18.46 (containing your lotto picks). You open WHEEL18.46 in a text editor and fill out your lottery cards by looking at the text file line by line.
Only your close attention is required, as I do not offer software to automatically print lottery cards. To my best knowledge, such software offered by others is primitive, at best. Not to mention that, at this time, many lottery commissions do not allow computer-printed lottery play-slips! The near future, however, almost guarantees that most lottery games will be played online, by simply uploading text files of lottery combinations (including lotto wheels).
The specifics for Powerball, Mega Millions and Euromillions wheels.
You can start with a lotto-5 wheel. Next, add each Powerball number at the end of each 5-number lotto wheel. For example, you selected a 15-number wheel with the 3 in 5 minimum guarantee. Line 1 is:
1 2 3 4 5
You want to add 5 Power Balls to the system: 1 2 3 4 5. One line in the lotto-5 wheel becomes... 5 lines:
1 2 3 4 5, 1
1 2 3 4 5, 2
1 2 3 4 5, 3
1 2 3 4 5, 4
1 2 3 4 5, 5
Thus, a Powerball or Mega Millions lottery wheel must consist of 6-number lines.
The Euromillions wheels add a second Power Ball (named Star Number). Thus, a Euromillions wheel must consist of 7-number lines.
1 2 3 4 5, 1 2
1 2 3 4 5, 2 3
The picks files (the actual lotto numbers to play) for Powerball, Mega Millions and Euromillions are created correctly by SkipSystem. The files must have two lines. The first line holds the regular numbers to play. The second line holds the power balls / mega balls or star numbers (for Euromillions).
That's all there is to this extraordinarily logical lotto wheeler software. Nothing else comes even close — regardless of price (some lotto wheeling programs or services are very pricey!)
Kokostirk! Kotkoduck! (The two are pioneers of lotto wheeling theory and practice. They started off in a newsgroup known as r.g.l.— rec.gambling.lottery. I wanted to mention them here for posterity, even though they always were tough adversaries of mine!)