I can't see it being probability and maths Catsmith. I'm sure there are better mathematicians out there who would have clocked onto this a long time ago if it were actually possible to predict the lottery numbers.

Saying you can predict the lottery numbers is like saying you can predict what number a roulette wheel will land on. Every ball has exactly the same chance of coming out as the next.

It's going to be a trick but I'm not sure what.

What time is he on so I can avoid the show?

Indeed, Stephen Hawking would be the richest man in the world by now, if this rationale was correct.

Its still a trick which ever way you look at it, ask yourself why he didn`t reveal his numbers to the nation 5 mins before the draw was made ? They close the lottery terminals at 7-30pm i think so nobody could have copied his numbers ife he had revealed them before hand, by waiting until after the draw was finished before he revealed his numbers then its a trick/illusion of some sort where you needed to know the result before hand.

If you were that good and could pick the lottery numbers then what would you choose, a £20k ish fee for doing a tv show or putting the numbers on yourself and standing to win a possible windfall of over £4 million.

Its an illusion just like his horse racing scam was which was one of the oldest tricks in the book used by numerous telephone tipsters.

he said at the start of the program, camelot and lottery have the legal right to show the numbers first, likewise he's said in previous money making schemes and scams(greyhound racing) he doesn't do it cos it would ruin his credibility as a professional.

This is why Derren Brown is banned from every single casino. Can you imagine the uproar if a mathematician (or Derren Brown who is well known for things like this) won the lottery? There's no way Camelot would allow them to keep it. Plus I think Mr. Brown is rich enough from his tours, DVDs, books, programmes to need a lottery win.

Nobody is questioning the Camelot statement. nothing stopped him showing his own numbers 5 mins before the draw was made other than it would have been pointless as he wouldn`t have had any numbers to show as the trick/illusion on the face of it relies on knowing the result first hence why he never revealed what his own numbers were before hand.

Anyone can show their ticket to anyone else before the draw his made, ask yourself why he didn`t show his numbers until after the draw, the trick/illusion would have had more credibilty that way rather than showing us something after the event.

Because of he'd been right (which he was) he'd have been breaking Camelots right to show the lottery numbers first to the general public. It'd a bit different showing your mates the lottery numbers and broadcasting them live on TV in front of an audience of (probably) millions.

If the methodology for the win came from applying a mathematical principle, there is nothing that Camelot can do about it, as it isn't cheating.

Your missing the point, their was nothing stopping him showing his own numbers 5 mins before the draw other than the trick wouldn`t have worked because it relied on knowing the result before hand.

Camelot would have been showing the draw and result first anyway, his numbers were irrelevant other than they were just a set of numbers for a tv show and it would have made no difference to camelot if they were on show or not as they had nothing to do with their draw other than for an illusion.

Even if they had been right or wrong, nobody could have entered the numbers anyway.

Same applies to casinos, doesn't mean Derren Brown is banned from every single one.

No Rob is right.

He wouldn't have been showing the lottery numbers, he would have been showing his prediction. The numbers hadn't been drawn, so there was no issue with him showing them. It was part of the show.

I agree that he never had the numbers in advance, how could he?

He is a trickster of the very highest order.

Ever noticed how some balls are drawn with a far greater frequency than others?

He's banned from Casino's because he can count cards which gives him a mathematical edge the casino don't want players to have. I bet a casino would let him in if he just wanted to play roulette.

There is no equations to work out what roulette numbers will come out or what lottery numbers. In theory, the same lottery numbers could come out every week for 4 weeks in a row. The key, as people have pointed out, is that he would not show his numbers before the draw. Yes, the BBC have the legal right to show them first but his numbers were just a prediction and not the official numbers. This means he could have shown his numbers first without and legal implications. He did not do it because he did not know them.

We'll be told how he did it tonight and I'm 99% sure that it will be proved to have been some sort of mind trick or misdirection. He did say after all that he will be performing 4 feats of misdirection on his adverts originally.

There is nothing that Camelot could do if his methodology came from computation.