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About DRAW LAB
An independent draw simulator and statistics project for Powerball and Mega Millions — built by one person, funded by a small Pro tier, and honest about the one thing it cannot do.
Who runs this site
DRAW LAB is built and operated by David Choi, an entrepreneur, developer and marketer based in the United States. I write the code, source and clean the draw data, and write every article published here. There is no editorial team and no anonymous content network behind this domain — if something on the site is wrong, it is my mistake to fix.
My day job is in commercial real estate finance, which is where I spend most of my time reading contracts, amortization schedules and tax treatment. That background shows up here: the parts of this site I care most about are the ones dealing with what a jackpot is actually worth after the annuity discount and the tax bill, because that is where the published numbers most often mislead people.
You can reach me directly at About@dollargravity.com, or use the contact page.
Why this site exists
I started building DRAW LAB because I wanted to know whether any of the number-picking folklore held up. Hot numbers, cold numbers, overdue numbers, sum ranges, odd-even splits — every lottery site publishes them, and a lot of players treat them as signal. It seemed like a question you could settle with data rather than opinion.
So I pulled the full draw history, restricted it to the current game matrix, and checked. The answer was unambiguous and slightly disappointing: the spread you see in lottery frequency data is exactly the spread you would expect from a fair, memoryless random process. There is no signal. There was never going to be one. A ball has no memory of the last drawing, and a machine has no obligation to even things out.
That left me with two choices: quietly bury the finding and sell number picks anyway, which is what a large slice of this industry does, or build the honest version. This is the honest version.
DRAW LAB does not sell predictions, systems, wheels, or "winning numbers." No feature on this site — including the hot/cold weighting in the simulator — changes anyone's real odds of winning anything. The weighting is a game mechanic that makes the draw animation feel different. That is all it is, and the app says so on the screen where you use it.
What DRAW LAB actually is
- A draw simulator. A physical-feeling drum you swipe to generate a Powerball or Mega Millions line, with options to weight the pool, save sets, and replay draws. No money changes hands inside the simulator and no prizes are awarded.
- A results archive. Past Powerball and Mega Millions winning numbers, organized by year.
- A statistics layer. Frequency, gap, pair, sum and parity breakdowns — presented as a description of what has already happened, always with the caveat that it forecasts nothing.
- A small library of written guides. Long-form pieces on the money side of a jackpot: lump sum versus annuity, state tax treatment, claiming rules, and the mathematics of why frequency patterns are not predictive.
It is not a lottery, a ticket vendor, a courier service, or a betting site. You cannot buy a ticket here, and we will never ask you to.
How the data is produced
Draw results come from the New York State Open Data portal (data.ny.gov), which publishes Powerball and Mega Millions winning numbers as an official public dataset. Records are ingested automatically, then filtered before any statistic is computed.
The filter is the part that matters, and it is where this site differs from most of its competitors. Both games have changed their number matrix several times. Powerball has drawn from 5 of 69 white balls plus 1 of 26 red balls since October 7, 2015. Mega Millions changed on April 8, 2025, moving from 5 of 70 plus 1 of 25 to 5 of 70 plus 1 of 24, alongside a price increase to $5.
Draws taken under different matrices are not comparable. A Mega Ball count that pools results from a 25-ball pool and a 24-ball pool is not measuring anything real. Every statistic on this site is computed from current-matrix draws only, and each statistics page states the matrix and the number of drawings behind the figure. The full detail is on the methodology page.
One consequence worth stating plainly: because Mega Millions reset its matrix in April 2025, the current-matrix sample is small — on the order of 150 drawings. That is roughly ten appearances per number. It is nowhere near enough data to distinguish a "hot" number from ordinary chance, and the guide on frequency data works through exactly why.
Editorial standards
- Every factual claim is sourced. Articles cite primary sources — IRS publications, state revenue departments, state statutes, official lottery sites — and link them at the foot of the page. Where a figure comes from our own arithmetic on published inputs, the article says so.
- Dated, not evergreen-by-pretense. Tax rates, anonymity statutes and game rules change. Every guide carries a "last updated" date, and figures are tied to a stated tax year or effective date rather than written as if permanent.
- No affiliate links to gambling products. This site does not sell tickets, take a cut of ticket sales, or link out to lottery couriers or betting operators. Revenue comes from the optional Pro tier and from display advertising.
- Advertising is separate from editorial. Advertisers have no input into what is published here and no advance sight of it.
- Corrections are made in public. If an article is wrong, it gets corrected on the page with a dated note, not silently edited. Send corrections to Contact@dollargravity.com and I will check the source.
The disclaimer that actually matters
Nothing on DRAW LAB is tax advice, legal advice, or financial advice, and I am not a licensed attorney, CPA, or financial adviser. The guides are written to explain how the rules work and to point you at the primary sources, so you can walk into a conversation with a professional knowing which questions to ask. For anything involving a real prize, hire real advisers before you sign anything — including the back of the ticket.
And the simplest one: a lottery ticket is entertainment spending, not an investment. Roughly half of every dollar played across these games goes back out as prizes; the rest funds state programs, retailers and operations. If play stops feeling like entertainment, the responsible play page has resources that are free, confidential and available 24 hours a day.