Bet On The Lotto With Your Favourite TV Show

I know better than to give you any spoilers for that episode, so I will settle for just one: “The Pink Wedding” offers nothing in the way of lottery numbers, the only TV trivia we care about here at Lottoland. That is unless you count the generous main character kill-offs as a form of lottery. I’ve said too much already! In any case, an untimely death doesn’t really measure up a jackpot in PowerBall.

While you can be sure that plenty of characters are quite literally yet to be axed from the popular TV show, I wouldn’t put my money on any lottery numbers showing up soon. I’m just being realistic. That is unless the Lannisters organise some kind of state lottery to pay off some of those famous debts of theirs.

I’ll get the to the point. Even though Game of Thrones doesn’t offer much in the way of magic numbers, I’ve found a few American shows that actually do.  

Lost

Anyone remember Lost? Of course you do. This show had us all hooked for the better part of six years.  However, the supernatural and intriguing show failed to satisfy many of the fans with its 2010 finale. Many felt the show’s now famous creators, J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof, failed to answer some of the plot’s open questions.

But if the finale didn’t exactly offer the pay off everyone was hoping for, the show’s supposedly cursed lotto numbers did. In the show, the character Hurley won over 100 million dollars using numbers that would stalk him throughout the remainder of the show. As often in fiction, the win didn’t turn out for the better.

But things are different in real life. In 2011, almost 26,000 fans won on Mega Millions after playing the very same numbers used in the show. Each and every fan won $150 each in a small scale case of life imitating art. 

By the way, had you or any other Lost fans won the jackpot with those numbers, you wouldn't have had to settle for a shared pot. Our NumberShield would have protected you and your jackpot from being split with 26,000 other players.

Numbers: 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42.

Breaking bad

This was the show to watch last year. Most of you should know the premise by now: Walter White is a chemistry teacher diagnosed with cancer. To secure the financial well being of his family after he’s gone, he starts making drugs utilising skills he picked up on the job. Throughout the seasons we witness Walt build a drug empire but also descend so low on the ladder of morality that even some drug traffickers would be appalled at his behaviour.

By the fifth season of the crime drama, White has literally racked up barrel-loads of cash. He hides his stash in the middle of nowhere but makes the best note-to-self ever by playing the co-ordinates of his stash on the lottery. He then puts the ticket on the fridge.

OK, so I just did a round up of one of the most-watched shows of all time. But perhaps you didn’t know this: if you type in the location of the stash (N 34 59’20 W 106 36’ 52) in Google maps, you get to the location of a certain Albuquerque TV studio, where a certain show was shot. No kidding.

Numbers: 34, 59, 20, 106, 36, 52

Simpsons

The State Lottery has featured several times on the show, leaving Simpsons fans spoilt for choice when it comes to numbers. The totally legit slogan of the lottery is “The State Lottery – where everybody wins!” The draws are televised live and who else to announce it than Channel 6’s Kent Brockman?

In the 2010 episode “Million Dollar Maybe” Homer scored a jackpot on the lottery. The show begins with Homer opening a fortune cookie with a fortune saying, “it will be his lucky day.” Homer decides to make the most of it and buys a lottery ticket winning him a jackpot worth a million bucks.

For anyone interested, this show also features a guest appearance by Coldplay singer Christ Martin. It is also the first outing of Ricardo Bomba, a character that was created as a result of a contest where fans could send in suggestions for new characters for the show. This episode is about to explode with trivia, but we haven’t given you the most important one yet – the numbers.

Numbers: 1-6-17-22-24-35

Monk

Monk, the show about its eponymous the obsessive-compulsive P.I., is a gold mine for lottery numbers.  One of the comedy-drama and detective mystery’s many episodes that have featured lottery numbers is “Mr. Monk and the Paperboy”.  

The episode involves a couple of lottery vendors stealing a ticket from an unknowing winner, and then trying to keep the very same winner from seeing his numbers in the media. This involves them stealing his morning newspaper from the doorstep, where the paperboy alluded to in the episode title meets his demise.

Here I need to make a pause: It should be pointed out that none of this would have happened had the winner instead opted to bet on the results here at Lottoland – where you don’t have to worry about disappearing lottery tickets and where you always get notified of your winnings. OK, shameless plug time is over, here are the numbers used.

Numbers: 8-12-17-26-34-25

Roseanne

I’m taking a trip down memory lane with this one. Do you remember Roseanne? Perhaps some of you Brits missed it, but back in the late eighties and early nineties this was among the most watched shows on American TV.

Its premise was the the economical hardship faced by the middle-American and working-class family the Conners. What better then to win the lottery? One of the episodes in the show’s final season sees the family winning a whopping $100 million jackpot. That is after it all turns out to be a fantasy.

Their winning numbers were picked in an unusual fashion. The show’s character Jackie choose the three first ones because she believed those were “just standard numbers” that had to be there. The number four was picked because Roseanne claims that was the number of planets in our solar system. The number 8 was picked after the number of parking tickets she got in a specific parking lot and the number 36 the number of times she salted her hospital food.

Numbers used: 1-2-3-4-8-36

Do you know of any other TV shows where the lottery have been making a guest appearance? Shared them with us.