Pennsylvania Lottery Numbers Drawing Suspicions
Posted: 8/24/2004 8:33:03 AM
The same four digits have hit in the daytime Big 4 lottery drawing in three out of the past four days.
Yesterday, 5048 was the winning Big 4 number, as seen on Lottery Post's Pennsylvania Results Page. On Saturday, 8504 was the winning number, and 5408 hit on Friday.
Also, 4508 hit in the Aug. 9 midday Big 4 drawing.
The odds of any one four-digit number hitting on a given day are 1-in-10,000. Someone who regularly plays a "boxed" ticket -- that is, uses the same four digits, but rearranges them to produce different numbers -- could have won three times in four days, and four times this month.
He wouldn't have taken home a lot of money, though. A 50-cent bet on a boxed ticket with four different digits wins $100.
Folks appear to have picked up on the trend -- yesterday's Big 4 drawing paid out to 679 winners, more winners than for any other midday Big 4 drawing this month. Throughout August, the Big 4 midday drawing averaged about 284 winners statewide.
The strange run of luck capped a week in which a Lottery glitch raised a few eyebrows -- even though the Lottery's Web page said midday drawings are held at 1:35 p.m., the Post-Gazette and other news organizations received the Daily Number and Big 4 drawing results around 1:15 p.m.
Lottery officials insist there's nothing fishy about the midday drawings, explaining to Tom Barnes, our Harrisburg bureau chief, that the winning digits are picked by one of two "random number generators" -- basically, computers labeled "A" and "B" -- operated by one of 15 lottery staff employees. The computer that will draw the numbers on a given day is chosen by the flip of a coin.
The drawing itself is monitored by a private auditing firm.
Earlier in the year, a similar run of luck accompanied the number 474. That combination won the Daily Number four times in less than a month, at one point hitting twice on the same day, June 12.
The evening Big 4 and Daily Number drawings are overseen by a lottery official and senior citizen, and are broadcast on live television. Bouncing balls, numbered 0 through 9, are pulled from a tumbler machine.
The sets of balls for the Daily Number, as well as the Big 4, are replaced roughly every other month. To make sure the balls aren't tampered with, the Lottery rotates several sets among the tumbler machines.
Source: Post-Gazette and Lottery Post Staff
