No method guarantees a win in Tattslotto. What math can do is describe the game’s structure — the odds, the combinatorial compositions, and why some combinations are more in line with how random outcomes actually distribute over many draws.
Understanding the odds is where the math begins. The numbers describe the game’s structure clearly, and that structure is what combinatorics and probability theory work with.
Table of Contents
The Odds of Winning Tattslotto
Tattslotto is an Australian lottery game, known by different names across states. Six numbers and two supplementary numbers are drawn randomly from a pool of 1 to 45. To win the jackpot, you need to match all six main numbers. The odds of doing that are 1 in 8,145,060.
Australian Powerball has longer jackpot odds. Tattslotto’s combination space is smaller, which means fewer total outcomes to cover per ticket. But 1 in 8 million is still a very long way from easy. To put it in perspective, you have a better statistical chance of being elected to the Australian Parliament than hitting the Tattslotto jackpot.
Smaller prizes are available for matching 3 to 5 numbers, with an overall chance of winning something at about 1 in 42.34 based on official prize divisions.1
The probability that a single ticket wins nothing is 0.9764. The probability of losing across multiple tickets stacks like this:
P(losing nth times) = 0.9764n tickets
To reach a roughly 50/50 shot at winning any prize, around 29 tickets are required. Pushing that to 99.99% certainty of winning any prize takes about 385 tickets.
P(winning any prize) = 1 – 0.9764385 tickets
That 99.99% figure almost certainly means a lower-tier prize. The lottery is not structured to produce profit. Its expected value is negative by design, and no selection approach changes that.
Winning even the smaller prizes is a genuine challenge. Smaller prizes don’t offset the cost of play. The expected value of a lottery ticket is negative, and that does not change regardless of the approach.
How to Win Tattslotto: What Math Actually Offers
Each ticket represents one distinct combination out of all possible outcomes. Buying more different tickets increases the number of combinations covered, which increases the probability of holding the winning combination. That part is straightforward.
Buying more tickets increases coverage of the outcome space. Combinatorial composition is a separate dimension of the game’s mathematical structure.
Look at these combinations:
| 5-10-15-20-25-30 | multiples of five |
| 1-2-21-22-31-32 | three sets of consecutive numbers |
| 1-2-11-12-21-22 | digits restricted to one and two |
| 01-05-15-25-35-45 | almost all numbers ending in five |
| 31-32-33-34-35-36 | all numbers starting with three |
Most players will say all combinations share the same probability of winning. That is mathematically true. And yet, most players would not buy those five combinations above.
Something feels off about them. Ask lottery players directly, and almost none are willing to use them.2 They will cite equal probability and still refuse. The resistance exists even when the stated belief is that all combinations are equally likely.34
There is a calculated explanation for that resistance. Combinatorial mathematics and probability theory can spell it out clearly.
The Right Tools for Analyzing Tattslotto: Combinatorics and Probability
A lot of players reach for statistics first. They dig through past results and try to find something useful — hot numbers, cold numbers, numbers that are supposedly overdue.
That approach has a problem. Each draw is independent. What happened last week has no effect on what happens this week. Statistical analysis of past results can describe history; it cannot tell you anything reliable about future draws.
Combinatorial mathematics5 and probability theory6 work with the known structure of the game, not with guesses about the future.7
Tattslotto has a finite number pool. There are exactly 23 odd and 22 even numbers. The low range runs from 1 to 23, the high range from 24 to 45. Because the game’s structure is fully known, lottery questions are combinatorial and probability problems — not statistical ones. Past draw history is not required to understand how the game’s combination space is structured.89
A question like this has a precise mathematical answer:
“What is the probability that the next winning combination consists of six even numbers, all from the low range?”
That precision is what makes combinatorics and probability theory the appropriate tools for analyzing this game.
Probability Is Equal. Frequency Ratios Are Not.
Every number in Tattslotto has the same probability of being drawn. Hot and cold numbers are a myth. Every specific combination also has the same probability of winning the jackpot — there is exactly one winning combination per draw.10
No method changes that underlying probability. Not number selection, not wheels, not anything.
What combinatorics does describe is the frequency ratio of the composition group a chosen combination belongs to.
Odds and probability are not the same thing. Probability measures how likely a single event is on a scale of 0 to 1. Odds compare favorable outcomes to unfavorable ones using this formula:
In simple terms, odds show how many favorable shots exist compared to how many do not. Read The Lotto Secret: Master the Math of Winning
The underlying probability of Tattslotto cannot be changed. Combinatorial mathematics describes how compositions distribute across large numbers of draws — that is a property of the game’s structure, not a prediction of outcomes.
All combinations are equally likely in a single draw. But not all combinatorial compositions are equally represented across the full outcome space. Some compositions are more common than others because more combinations belong to them. That difference shows up in the long run.
When I discuss about Lotterycodex, I use the term frequency ratio rather than “odds in favor” to keep the meaning clear. It describes how often a compositional group is expected to appear over many draws — not a prediction, and not a guarantee.
Playing Tattslotto With Informed Choices
Here is how frequency ratios work in practice.
Take two combinatorial groups: a 0-odd-6-even composition and a 3-odd-3-even composition. Look at the difference in frequency ratios:
The 3-odd-3-even group has a frequency ratio of roughly 1:2, meaning it is expected to appear about 33 times in every 100 draws over the long run. The 0-odd-6-even group comes in at roughly 1:108.
A 0-odd-6-even group produces roughly one favorable occurrence per 109 draws. A 3-odd-3-even group produces roughly 33 favorable occurrences across the same span. That difference is a property of how each group is sized within the total combination space. It does not change the jackpot probability on any individual ticket.
Frequency ratio describes the long-run prevalence of a combinatorial composition within the total outcome space. That is a different kind of information than hot numbers, lucky picks, or draw history.
The Law of Large Numbers and Tattslotto
Each Tattslotto draw is random and independent. Past results have no influence on future draws. But when you look across a large number of draws, a long-run distribution emerges. This is what the law of large numbers describes: over many trials, observed frequencies tend to move toward their theoretical probabilities.11
To examine how theoretical probability compares to actual outcomes, I analyzed 1,013 historical Tattslotto draws from January 7, 2006 to June 28, 2025, measuring each combinatorial composition’s observed frequency against its expected frequency under probability theory. Expected frequency is calculated as:
Expected Frequency = Probability × 1013 draws
For the 3-odd-3-even group specifically:
Expected Frequency(3-odd-3-even) = 0.3348459 × 1013 = 339
Expected and actual results track closely. This is probability theory expressed through historical data: observed frequencies converge toward theoretical expectations as the number of draws grows.
The Lotterycodex Analysis of the Tattslotto 6/45 Game
Analyzing odd-even balance alone is not enough. A combination like 1-2-3-4-5-6 has a 3-odd-3-even composition — which looks typical on that dimension — but it is 6-low-0-high, which is rare when examined through the low-high dimension. One lens gives an incomplete picture.
I developed the Lotterycodex sets to study how different combinatorial compositions are distributed under probability theory, not a method for predicting or controlling outcomes. The sets combine both odd-even and low-high dimensions into a single unified combinatorial analysis by dividing the number field into four groups: LOW-ODD, LOW-EVEN, HIGH-ODD, and HIGH-EVEN. Each lottery format gets its own partition based on the game’s number field.
Here is how that partition looks for Tattslotto 6/45:
From this four-set framework, all possible combinations are classified into 84 Lotterycodex templates. Each template represents a specific combinatorial composition with its own frequency ratio and expected frequency over many draws.
The 84 templates are grouped into four categories based on their long-run frequency behavior:
This classification describes how different combinatorial compositions are distributed across Tattslotto’s total outcome space. The Lotterycodex calculator handles the combinatorial and probability calculations.
How to Win Tattslotto: Two Practical Approaches
There are two ways to increase coverage of possible outcomes in Tattslotto.
The first is buying more tickets. More tickets mean more combinations covered, and therefore a higher probability of holding the winning combination.
The second is using a lottery wheel. A lottery wheel organizes chosen numbers into combinations with less overlap, so a fixed budget covers more distinct outcomes. It does not change the probability of any individual ticket — but it reduces redundancy in the selection.
Combinations that belong to rare or extremely rare groups occupy a smaller share of the total combination space. They appear infrequently across the long run of draws — not because they are impossible, but because of their size within the outcome space.
Many players end up chasing superstitious approaches — lucky numbers, hot and cold numbers, dream interpretations, or horoscope readings. None of these hold up under mathematical scrutiny. They describe human psychology, not probability.
The Lotterycodex calculator handles the combinatorial and probability calculations automatically. The lotto number generator works the same way.
Tattslotto has been part of Australian life for decades. The draw itself is simple. Lottery participation is entertainment, and the math describes the game’s structure — nothing more.
How do you approach Tattslotto? Leave a comment below.
Understand Lottery Games Using Math-Based and Data-Driven Analysis
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The odds of winning the Tattslotto jackpot, which requires matching all six main numbers, are 1 in 8,145,060.
No. Since the supplementary numbers are drawn from the same drum, they do not affect the odds of winning the jackpot. The main purpose of these supplementary numbers is to offer additional lower-tier prizes.
The only way to increase the probability of winning is to buy more tickets. Each additional ticket represents one more distinct combination in the total outcome space. A lottery wheel reduces overlap between combinations, which means a fixed budget covers more distinct outcomes. Playing as part of a group distributes costs across more tickets. None of these approaches change the probability of any individual draw — they affect how many combinations are covered overall.
Lotterycodex classifies all possible Tattslotto combinations into 84 templates based on their combinatorial composition. Each template has a calculated frequency ratio that describes how often that compositional group appears across large numbers of draws. The framework shows which groups are more prevalent in the total combination space — not as a prediction, but as a descriptive reference grounded in combinatorial mathematics.
No. Tattslotto draws are random and each draw is independent of the previous one. No system, software, or method can predict which numbers will come up. Mathematics describes how outcomes distribute over many draws — it does not forecast individual results.
Every Tattslotto combination has a compositional makeup based on how many numbers are odd or even, and how many fall in the low or high range of the number field. Some compositional groups contain more combinations than others. Because of this, those larger groups tend to appear more frequently across many draws — not due to any bias in the draw, but simply because they occupy more of the total combination space.
From a probability standpoint, it makes no difference. Each draw is independent, and no combination becomes more or less likely based on how many times it has or has not been drawn before. The combinatorial composition of a chosen combination describes which group it belongs to within the total outcome space — whether that group is prevalent or rare is a property of the combination space, not of any individual draw.
Explore more:
References
- Australian 6/45 Prize Division [↩]
- Developing Your Intuition For Math [↩]
- When to Trust Your Gut [↩]
- Do The Math, Then Burn The Math and Go With Your Gut [↩]
- Combinatorics [↩]
- Probability Theory [↩]
- Probability versus Statistics [↩]
- How Likely Something is to Happen [↩]
- Sampling in Statistics: Different Sampling Methods, Types & Error [↩]
- What is the difference between odds and probability? [↩]
- Law of Large Numbers [↩]
Hi Edvin:
I have been thinking, reading and doing the math about what would be best. Once I have chosen some combinations from the first 4 patterns, what would you consider the best approach mathematically and probabilistically speaking. Pick new combinations for every draw or keep using the same combinations for every draw.
Each lottery draw is considered independent. In the study of probability, this is called an “independent event.” So it doesn’t matter whether you pick a new combination or keep the same combination each time. If you know you are using the best combinations with a better covering, keep playing the same list.
Hello and thankyou for this insightful and enlightening read. I wanted to ask if you can provide more guideance on systems plays and their influence on outcomes?
Please read this: https://lotterycodex.com/lottery-formula/
Hi. Could you please help me to find and download 3 best patterns. I couldn’t find the right app on appstore. Thx alot
The calculator is right here: https://lotterycodex.com/lotterycodex-calculators/
Hello,
Inquiring about the Lotterycodex calclator; I am in Missouri, and I would like to know if you have a version that would be compatible with the Missouri Lotto 6/44 game. Please let me know the cost.
Thank you,
Roy
You should get the 6/44 calculator here: https://lotterycodex.com/lotterycodex-calculators/
Hi Sue, I’ve run into the same problem, I wrote a small program in Python that I could feed in the results of a wheeling system (list of generated games) and eliminate those games that didn’t conform to certain criteria such as high/low, odd/even, limit consecutive numbers and excluding game number sums that fall outside srd deviation ranges, I’ve run these against the Aust Mon Wed draws (5/45) and used the full wheel for a guaranteed 2 if 6 and found that the 2 if 6 wheel on Sat lotto wins something better than half the time although I still make a loss in most cases as I will only win the bottom prize which is worth about half what my entry costs (cost $15.70 vs wins about $7 – $9) whereas the Mon and Wed draws which start with the same wheeling system but reduced as above rarely wins anything, admittedly those only cost about $6 and the prize structure is a bit different with the lowest prize being a little harder to win but even allowing for that the equivalent “wins” are much rarer (maybe 1 in 8).
I understand how to calculate the division one chances in 6/45 tattslotto division one as 45x44x43x42x41x40 / 6x5x4x3x2x1 = 8,145,000 but what are the formulas for 5/45, 4/45, 3/45 . If you can help please keep it as easy as possible. Thank you, Trevor.
The formula you used for Division 1 is the combination formula — mathematically written as C(45,6). The same logic applies to the other divisions:
C(45,5) = (45×44×43×42×41) / (5×4×3×2×1) = 1,221,759
C(45,4) = (45×44×43×42) / (4×3×2×1) = 148,995
C(45,3) = (45×44×43) / (3×2×1) = 14,190
These tell you how many possible combinations exist when choosing 5, 4, or 3 numbers from 45. But prize tier probability is a different calculation — it involves matching a specific subset of the 6 drawn numbers, which requires a few more steps.
Rather than walking through all that here, this free calculator does the heavy lifting for you: https://lotterycodex.com/calculators/lottery-odds-calculator.php
Entering with number combinations (like 1,2,3,4,5,6; for example) has precisely the same chance as ANY other number combination. Sure, your “gut” might tell you it’s not sensible to choose obviously ordered numbers; but you should also realise that your intuition is simply giving you an insight into how unlikely EVERY number combination is.
Look at the obviously ordered entry of numbers… feel how unlikely they are to win; then look at the random entry and realise they have EXACTLY the same chance of winning as the ordered entry. Because there are just SO MANY more possible random sets than recognisable ordered sets to choose from.
Just because you can’t recognise an ordered pattern in a set of random numbers doesn’t magically, or mathematically make them more likely to win. Yes… a set of random numbers is more likely to win than a set of ordered numbers. That doesn’t mean YOUR selection of random numbers is any more likely to win.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I see we’re touching on similar points. As a lottery player, it’s beneficial to consider the success-to-failure ratio. In short, rather than selecting numbers at random, using the S/F ratio as a tool can guide you towards making more informed decisions.