Penn. Lottery's Midday Mistake Leads to Questions About Drawings

Aug 21, 2004, 3:40 pm (19 comments)

Pennsylvania Lottery

When news outlets received the results of the Pennsylvania midday lottery drawing 20 minutes earlier than usual, some questioned how the non-televised drawing operates.

Sales for the Daily Number and Big 4 midday drawing end at 1:05 pm every day.

Until recently, the Pennsylvania Lottery website had said the drawing took place at 1:35 pm daily.

But this week, news organizations received the midday drawing results around 1:15 pm.

Now, lottery officials say the website was wrong and news outlets received the numbers by mistake.

The midday drawing is not televised, is conducted on one of two computers in the lottery offices in suburban Harrisburg and uses a random number generator.

Lottery officials say the process to select the random numbers starts at 1:10 pm. Around 1:35 pm, the Pennsylvania Lottery tells retailers about the winning numbers, updates the website and notifies the media about the results of the drawing.

AP

Comments

hypersoniq's avatarhypersoniq

how convenient...

well now I know what timestamp to start with... 13:10 ;-)

It would have been a bigger deal if they recieved the results prior to 1:05pm...

DoctorEw220's avatarDoctorEw220

i guess that goes to show you that you can only trust a live draw.

DoctorEw220's avatarDoctorEw220

also, i know how to get the winning numbers before they are validated on the machine, but i never post them on the poster before they are validated.  my boss did that one time, and it turned out they had to call a foul on that drawing.

four4me

And we don't know for sure that local televised ball drawings aren't preempted or taped.

Grammy3

 I said before get rid of Midday if you can not televise it. Plus why can you get eve draw till 6:55P.M and the cut off for midday is 1:05P.M. and the drawing is suppose to be 1:35P.M.

DoctorEw220's avatarDoctorEw220

it's weird.  one would think that the evening drawing would be cut off 30 mnutes before, and the midday 5 minutes before, since PA uses an RNG to draw the midday numbers.

BobP's avatarBobP

Pa has the numbers up on their site by 1:20 every day so the 1:35 has never been right.  BobP

blackghost37's avatarblackghost37

 

I think the midday drawing should be televised just like the evening drawing and the cut off time should be the same time. I am from Pittsburgh and my sister was telling me that two drawings in a row they had the same cash 3 & cash 4 I am trying to look this information for verification on their website.

 

Thanks

CASH Only

PA will make a mistake if they roll out their planned "Unlucky for Life".

DoctorEw220's avatarDoctorEw220

too late. i guess they're doomed.

CASH Only

We can still boycott it.

four4me

WHY WHY WHY


if you don't like annuity payments

sell your annuity for a

lump sum cash payment

.

hypersoniq's avatarhypersoniq
Quote: Originally posted by four4me on October 02, 2004



WHY WHY WHY


if you don't like annuity payments

sell your annuity for a

lump sum cash payment




I don't think Lucky for Life wins will be an easy sell to an annuity-buying company because it has no fixed end-of-payment schedule... if a 30 year old wins it it will be potentially worth more than if a 75 year old wins it.

If they go off of insurance company lifespan averages and you live longer than that, then you get ripped off... if you die sooner and spend it all, then they get ripped off... I don't see how you can sell it unless you use the 1,000,000 guarantee as a cutoff and then you would only get 500k, or 13.8 years of payments... and that's pre-tax...


 

four4me
Hyper I was just blowing off some steam. I know that cashonly has a deep seated hatred for annuity payments? I know I could never change his mind about this. I think there is a reason the lotteries set up some games with cash payments and some with annuity. I think one of the main reasons is, the lottery is a business who's main factor is raking in bucks. After all is said and done at the end of the year they have to show a profit. I understand that the lotteries buy bonds to cover many annuity payments. If they ran all cash only payments it's possible that they would go into default. because without the bonds they secure for payments they wouldn't be able to offer these large cash premium games. ... ..

Now if a person doesn't want an annuity payment then they should not buy the ticket or participate in that type of game. If a person wishes to and is to old to collect payments over a given time frame then they could give it to a younger family member or put it into a trust fund if possible. The reality of an annuity payment regardless of age is nobody knows how long their going to live. For example I worked with this older guy that played 789 every day for 20 dollars straight. Played it every day for 3 yrs. One night while watching TV the lottery numbers were drawn 789 he was found sitting in his favorite chair in the living room holding the 20 tickets in his hand. He passed away of a massive heart attack. While everyone in the house was eating in the kitchen. Everyone in his family was shocked. He had just enough money to be buried.

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