Some Lottery players unhappy with switch from numbered balls

Tennesseans will no longer be seeing the familiar numbered balls that announce the winning numbers for Tennessee Lottery drawings on television.

The Lottery began using computers to generate random numbers on July 28 for all of its lottery games, including Cash 3, Cash 4 and Lotto 5.

Some Nashville residents are not happy with the change.

"I don't like it," said Richard Brymer, 51, who's played the Tennessee Lottery since it started. "I'd rather see the drawings live because of the excitement of the live drawings."

Brymer said he quit playing all Tennessee lottery games when he found out about the lottery commission's decision to switch to computerized drawings. He continues playing Powerball because it still uses live drawings.

"I don't trust the computerized drawings," he said. "Possibly someone could do something to compromise the computerized drawings."

The Tennessee Lottery changed its drawings to keep up with industry trends, said Kym Gerlock, a spokeswoman for the Lottery.

"We're trying to keep up with what's happening in the industry, and this is cutting edge technology," she said.

Two standalone computers at the lottery's headquarters act as random number generators, and the computers are videotaped and overseen by security, Gerlock said.

"The security and integrity of our games is of utmost importance," she said. "There's no reason to doubt these drawings or question the integrity of how we do the drawings."

Computers are effective

The Lottery has received some complaints from players about the new system, Gerlock said.

"We hope players will accept and embrace the new technology," she said. "What people really want are winning numbers."

Computers could even be more effective in generating random numbers than lottery balls, said Frank Harrell, chairman of the biostatistics department at Vanderbilt University.

"The chance of a glitch is so nil," he said. "You could run the generator for centuries, and it would not repeat itself."

Twelve other state lotteries use computerized drawings, Gerlock said.