Lottery may be top talk among Tennessee legislators this session

Dec 11, 2007, 7:32 pm (8 comments)

Tennessee Lottery

Recent questions about the Tennessee state lottery could become political football in the upcoming legislative session.

Monday, state lottery officials tried to assure lawmakers that a summer glitch will not happen again.

Some, like House Leader and state representative Jason Mumpower, aren't buying the answers.

"Of the $3.7 billion in total sales, approximately $2 billion of that has been awarded to players but most importantly we have raised $1 billion for the education program that we fund," Tennessee Lottery CEO Rebecca Hargrove said Monday.

Numbers of a different sort drew attention over the summer after the lottery switched from a live drawing with numbered balls to a computer generated drawing.

Tennessee abandoned real drawings this past summer."We discovered a program error by a third party vendor certified by another vendor," said Hargrove. "When we discovered the error we corrected it immediately."

She said policies were put in place to make sure the glitch doesn't happen again.

Mumpower isn't so sure.

He said, "At the end of the day, what matters most does the lottery playing public have confidence in the system and I think that is what the legislature is going to have to decided in this next session."

Rep. Mumpower is holding judgment until a state comptroller report comes out next session about the cost effectiveness of computer generated drawings, versus the ones with numbered balls.

He said, "If we think the lottery playing public would have more confidence in the system by a return to the randomly numbered drawn balls, then I would think we would move in that direction."

Lottery officials claim returning to the live drawings would cost them $5 million yearly.

WKRN

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JADELottery's avatarJADELottery

Ridiculous, this is not about moneys raised (deflect), this is about a system that was promoted to be perfect and it is not from day one. A lottery will raise money whether or not a ball draw or computer picked system is in place. The following is just a diversion from the real issue, ' "Of the $3.7 billion in total sales, approximately $2 billion of that has been awarded to players but most importantly we have raised $1 billion for the education program that we fund," Tennessee Lottery CEO Rebecca Hargrove said Monday. '; the faulty computer generated numbers.

DoctorEw220's avatarDoctorEw220

Ok.  Has anyone seen their video on how their drawings are done?  They say that the computer cannot be broken into, and that the only thing that the computer is connected to is a modem that transmits the drawing information to the retailers.  What they don't know is that it is very easy for someone to break into a computer through a modem.

four4me

Quote: Originally posted by DoctorEw220 on Dec 12, 2007

Ok.  Has anyone seen their video on how their drawings are done?  They say that the computer cannot be broken into, and that the only thing that the computer is connected to is a modem that transmits the drawing information to the retailers.  What they don't know is that it is very easy for someone to break into a computer through a modem.

Yea i noticed that modem wire going into a receptacle with 4 other modem wires. Who are they trying to kidd. And how do we know that the PC's used aren't equipped with a wireless connection as well.

 What Rebecca didn't say was it was the players that informed the Tennessee lottery that there was a software malfunction. And her staff sent out emails saying nothing was wrong. I can understand her reluctance to tell the truth. But the truth of the matter is there was incompetence on the vendors fault and her department for not noticing the problem. Then to compound the issue they inflated figures to show they were making money. Had to have outside vendors to check the program that was supposedly working fine. If the oversight committee allows them to continue using the computer generated software i hope the people of Tennessee file a petition to get them to go back to ball drawings. 

In fact the Tennessee lottery should be required to run television, radio, and news paper adds informing the people of Tennessee that the drawings they use at the present time are computer generated. Not the original ball drawings they used for many years without problems.  

 Rep. Mumpower decision should favor the ball drawing over the computer generated drawings regardless of the cost. Just because Rebecca said the the software is working perfectly doesn't mean it can't be manipulated.

chasingadream's avatarchasingadream

they say it would cost an additional 5mill to do the broadcasting?

I wonder if Mrs. Hargrove would consider giving up the "bonus" money she gets to help protect the integrity of her precious  

 

LOL.......because in her eyes the lottery in Tennessee wouldn't be what it is today without her "expertise".

JADELottery's avatarJADELottery

The Hargollum

tntea's avatartntea

Stop playing TN in state.. Take it online..

chasingadream's avatarchasingadream

Quote: Originally posted by JADELottery on Dec 12, 2007

The Hargollum

ROTFLMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!LOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOL

 

Thank you .....I needed that laugh.

littlejsing's avatarlittlejsing

Sure does bear a strong resemblance moreso if you added a bun to the back of his head!

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