N.C. resident speaks out against computerized lottery drawings
Posted: 11/23/2005 11:33:00 AM
Editor: The following letter appeared in the News & Observer (Raleigh, N.C.) this morning, November 23, 2005. The Lottery Post staff urges other North Carolina residents to do as this bright woman did, and speak out on this important issue. Don't sit back and risk the possibility that your state will use a computer instead of real lottery drawings!
I'm very happy that North Carolina has joined the rest of the East Coast in adopting a state lottery, and I'm excited to start playing. However, as someone who has a keen interest in lottery games, I am aware of an important issue that most people don't know about.
Several state lotteries, mostly in the West, have gotten rid of lottery drawing machines and replaced them with computerized drawings. That means that instead of players being able to see a fair lottery drawing, where numbered balls are drawn from a tumbling drum or some similar system, a computer is programmed to select the numbers using a "Random Number Generator" and players don't have a chance to witness the numbers being selected on live TV.
The states with computerized drawings try to convince the public that they are a way to have fair drawings while lowering operating costs. Hogwash! With computerized drawings, there will always be a suspicion about validity and fairness. Who knows what's actually going on inside the computer, or if some hacker has managed to get around the computerized security?
This issue is especially important to North Carolina residents because our new executive lottery director, Tom Shaheen, instituted computerized drawings in New Mexico, where he has been lottery director. We want real drawings in North Carolina; do not bring computerized drawings to our state.
Janet Austin
Charlotte
Source: News & Observer
