Your chance of winning is not the same if you never pick a number that could be drawn with the winning combination.<p>If you never pick 7, the winning combination could still have a seven in it.  By never picking seven, you are voluntarily abandoning 1&#x2F;69 of the white balls and 1&#x2F;26 of the red balls.  There are (68 C 4) x 25 + (69 C 5) such combinations out of the (69 C 5) x 26 possible combinations, or 31598138 out of 292201338.  You lower your chances of winning in the first place to 89% of normal by avoiding just <i>one</i> number.