Seven wins global favorite-number polls and eight means money across China. This guide covers where the two lucky numbers come from and where PlayStation fans and casino players will spot them.
Check any old PS1 shelf. Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VIII are probably side by side, two numbered entries from 1997 and 1999 that still define the console’s golden era for anyone who owned one.
Square didn’t choose those numbers for luck, they’re simply where the series had got to by then. Still, it’s a neat way into why 7 and 8 turn up so often in places that have nothing to do with RPGs.
Seven is the West’s go-to lucky number, while eight does the same job across China. Both have centuries of habit propping them up.
Why Casino Games Love 7 and 8
Craps gives 7 a real mathematical edge over every other total. Two six-sided dice can fall 36 different ways, and six of those combinations add up to 7, so it’s the single most likely total at the table. Funnily enough, 7 is also what ends a shooter’s turn once a point is set, so the lucky number wins on the come-out roll and loses afterward.
Baccarat looks after 8 instead. A two-card hand worth 8 or 9 is called a “natural,” which means no more cards are dealt and the hand is settled right there.
On classic three-reel slot machines, a line of red 7s has been the jackpot image for decades, and Japanese pachislot machines use the 777 combo in much the way Vegas does.
It’s no surprise that online casinos set up for Kiwi players, such as Smokos NZ, give baccarat its own section in the lobby. Its live tables come from Evolution and Pragmatic Play Live, including Dynasty Speed Baccarat, plus Dragon Tiger, a quick two-card cousin of baccarat with a big following across Asia.
Smokos NZ only launched in August 2026, but there are already 700+ games in its lobby. Slots (pokies, as New Zealanders call them) come from studios like Pragmatic, Hacksaw Gaming, Play’n GO and Nolimit City, and players can hold an account in NZD or play with crypto like BTC and ETH.
Smokos NZ also has an eleven-level loyalty program that moves players up automatically, adding daily rakeback and, at higher levels, cashback.
Seven Tops the World’s Favorite Number Poll
British math writer Alex Bellos set out to settle the question in 2014. He asked visitors to his favouritenumber.net site to name their favorite number and explain why, and over 44,000 people did.
Those results, reported by Nautilus, put 7 in first place. Number 3 came second, and 8 grabbed bronze. Fans of contrarian picks pushed 13 up to sixth, while 110 ended up as the least favorite, being the smallest whole number to get zero votes.
But Bellos didn’t buy the usual explanations about seven days in a week or seven visible planets.
“People’s strongest emotional reaction is to the number 7, and this has been true throughout history,” he told Nautilus.
His own theory is mathematical. Seven is the only number between 2 and 10 that isn’t a multiple or a factor of any other number in that range. It’s a loner, basically, and people seem to like numbers that stand apart from the crowd.
Japan offers a cultural example of its own in the Seven Lucky Gods, a group of deities that turn up on New Year charms and shop-front figurines across the country.
Bellos also admitted his poll didn’t have the rigor of a professional survey. Anyone who bothers voting in a favorite-number poll is probably a numbers person to begin with, so a random sample of the public could look slightly different.
Why Eight Means Money in China
In Mandarin, eight is pronounced “ba,” which sounds close to “fa,” a word tied to wealth and prosperity. Even numbers did worse overall in the Bellos poll, so 8 finishing third says plenty about its pull in China.
Beijing went all in on this for the 2008 Olympics. Its opening ceremony started at 8:08 p.m. on August 8, 2008, a detail NPR covered as the Games approached, with UCLA Mandarin professor Tai Chin walking listeners through the ba-fa connection.
Couples piled in too. The Christian Science Monitor reported that at least 16,400 Beijing couples picked 08-08-08 as their wedding date. And back in 2003, Sichuan Airlines paid around 2.33 million yuan for the phone number 8888-8888.
Four gets the opposite treatment because it sounds like the word for death, so buildings across East Asia often skip a fourth floor. That’s mildly awkward branding for a console called the PS4, though Sony seems to have survived it.
Lucky and unlucky numbers change a fair bit from one country to the next.
| Number | Reputation | Where | Main Reason |
| 8 | Lucky | China, Hong Kong and Taiwan | “Ba” sounds like “fa” (prosperity) |
| 4 | Unlucky | China, Japan and South Korea | Sounds like the word for death |
| 7 | Lucky | US, Europe and Japan | Seven-day week and the Seven Lucky Gods |
| 9 | Unlucky | Japan | “Ku” sounds like the word for suffering |
| 13 | Unlucky | US and UK | Friday the 13th superstition |
Lucky Numbers in PlayStation Games
Sevens turn up all over PlayStation history, sometimes by design and sometimes by pure coincidence.
- 7 million copies of Final Fantasy VII Remake had shipped and sold digitally by 2023.
- Over 7.77 million downloads had been logged for the mobile spin-off Final Fantasy VII Ever Crisis when Rebirth arrived on PS5 on February 29, 2024.
- Collect all seven Chaos Emeralds and Sonic turns into Super Sonic, a rule the series has used since Sonic the Hedgehog 2 in 1992.
- Seven Dragon Balls are the whole point of Dragon Ball games, including 2024’s Sparking! Zero on PS5.
Then there’s the Gold Saucer, Final Fantasy VII’s neon amusement park, where players trade Gold Saucer Points for prizes. It came back in a big way for Rebirth, which picked up a permanent PS5 price drop in February 2026.
Eight gets a rougher deal in gaming. Final Fantasy VIII is still the entry fans argue over the most, although its card game, Triple Triad, found such a loyal following that Square Enix later added it to Final Fantasy XIV.
Lucky Numbers Don’t Change the Odds
A lucky-number bet is harmless enough as a personal ritual. As a strategy, it does nothing at all, and believing a number is “due” because it hasn’t come up in a while is a well-known trap called the gambler’s fallacy.
On a European roulette wheel, 7 has a 1-in-37 chance, no better than 22 or 31. Slot results come from a random number generator that has no idea which symbol you’re hoping for, and a baccarat shoe doesn’t care what number is on your jersey.
For readers in New Zealand, Smokos NZ offers roulette in its live casino as well as baccarat, and it gives players controls for reining in lucky-number sessions. Deposit limits and loss limits can be set from the player’s own account, with wager caps available on top of that.
A lower limit takes effect straight away, while a higher one only kicks in after a 24-hour cooling-off period. Time-outs last anywhere from one day to three months. For longer breaks there’s self-exclusion, up to a permanent option.
Responsible Gambling Notice
Gambling should be treated as entertainment and never as a source of income. Only bet what you can afford to lose, and use account limits to manage your play. 18+ only.