Engineer reported bad Tenn. Lottery computerized draws

Comment #28

LOTTOMIKE — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 11:41:53 GMT

i'm pretty sure there won't be too much time that elapses before there is a new 'flaw' tennessee discovers.they'll do the same thing as they did last time.nothing until they have to......

Comment #27

Uncle Jim — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 15:49:58 GMT

Thank you Todd!

Jim

Comment #26

Todd — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 14:29:53 GMT

There was a new story posted this morning.

Comment #25

WIN D — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 14:17:11 GMT

If I were a State Lottery Offical....(God Forbid)

My first thought ...... if I were entertaining changing from normal draws to computer draws would be .....How would we make sure the draws were RANDOM ?

Someone selling me software for my lottery drawings would have to convince me there were Checks and Balances in place .. that would ALERT on NON random events taking place each day for several days in a row.

There is software that test such things ! Where was

Comment #24

Uncle Jim — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 12:33:28 GMT

So what's going on with this mess in Tennessee now? In the last few days I haven't seen any stories, news or comments? Are there any updates or is this story going to die? A lot of outrage and then business as usual?

Jim

Comment #23

four4me — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 15:54:11 GMT

I think many email responses are generic in nature meaning that depending on the question. They have a list of answers and whomever is handling the emails just simply clicks on the appropriate reply or the next best reply to a question.

Rarely will a person get a detailed specific personally typed reply from them.

From talking to different people whom have worked for the lottery in my home town. There are literally hundreds of emails form people mostly complaints about why their numbers

Comment #22

Todd — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 13:25:01 GMT

UJ, I agree, and I have stated the same points in other posts. If you go back and see my previous posts when the story was breaking, I believe I was the first to raise these issues -- about the conflict in statements coming from the lottery. My comments above were strictly related to the writing of news stories, not my personal opinions.

Comment #21

Uncle Jim — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 13:20:27 GMT

Todd,

I think you make a great point about the e-mail as a verifiable news source. And I certainly understand and agree with you as to getting to the facts and remaining ethical. But Like Mystikal I gotta wonder:

1. Who at the Tennessee Lottery sent those emails and what is the source of their authority to respond in such a manner?

2. From whom and where did they get their information?

3. Did someone in a position of authority at the Tennessee Lottery provide the information and au... [ More ]

Comment #20

KyMystikal — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 06:11:02 GMT

That is a nice point about the email replies that the lottery gave. But why did they even reply or have someone reply back if their email reply meant nothing. Somebody had to tell who ever responded to the emails something to tell the public in the first place so I don't believe that crap. Besides there were several days that had passed since the email was sent and the reply came back., granted I did send my email in to them on a Sat. Yes, they could say it was the weekend, but I didn't get a re... [ More ]

Comment #19

tnlotto1 — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 16:07:33 GMT

that is interesting google junky because i saw a special on vegas cheaters on the travel channel and they talked about hackers figuring out how to break the code of the slot machines because the slot machines arent really random and any sequence can be predicted. the guy who was busted use to make the slot machines so he knew exactly how to predict the winners. i didnt know the lottery computers worked the same way but i knew i didnt want tennessee to go RNG

Comment #18

Google Junky — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 15:46:48 GMT

Ask around to any person knowledgeable about writing programming for computers and they will tell you that computers can't really randomize numbers. They are Pseudo-Random. Meaning they have a pattern and are never really random at all. It isn't possible to do.

Pseudo-Random was discovered during WWII when the Germans code was broke that they used to send what they thought to be random lettering that only the receiving machine could decipher. The first computer ever made was the size of a fac... [ More ]

Comment #17

Todd — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 13:26:56 GMT

Hot Lotto (MUSL) uses a radioactive decay method for their RNG, which I believe is considered truly random. However that's only one part of the equation. The other part is unsolvable: computers can be hacked.

Comment #16

dvdiva — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 13:15:01 GMT

Why would Tenn. change the system. People keep buying tickets and the MSM doesn't report the story. So far it looks like a very profitable system for Tenn. You can't expect modern journalists to cover something as difficult as mathmatics.

For the record random.org has a good explaination as to why computer based RNGs are not used in scientific research and truely random generators that are used by no current lottery. None of the current computer based lottery RNGs are random so it's all a gue... [ More ]

Comment #15

LOTTOMIKE — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 11:17:42 GMT

rebecca paul needs to be replaced.

Comment #14

Jani Norman — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 03:47:21 GMT

http://search.tennessean.com/sp?aff=100 keywords=lottery

Comment #13

DoubleDown — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 02:06:45 GMT

Did anyone catch the toll free number that the Tennessee lottery gave out to call for info ?

It is a sex chat line !!!!

I saw this on CNN today.

Comment #12

Todd — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 01:11:42 GMT

There are several ways that I put together news stories. Sometimes I write them myself. Sometimes I post directly from another media source. And sometimes I put together a piece that uses bits from other sources, and the rest I write myself.

The article able is the third type of story. If you check the Source at the bottom you will see Huntsville Star News, Lottery Post Staff . That means I took bits from the Huntsville Star News story, and wrote the rest myself. So to say that the HSN... [ More ]

Comment #11

Rocket 455 — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 21:48:37 GMT

I apologize for assuming that the H'ville Star News left out the part of the emails stating that the TN Lottery had indeed done tests. At any rate, e-mails these days must have SOME validity or else so many people at the top wouldn't be deleting them left and right. Yes it's very important that the players who threw down their good money on doubles and triples get the whole story. Thank you Todd for doing your part! I'll try to read the whole post before commenting in the future.... [ More ]

Comment #10

JADELottery — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 20:24:32 GMT

I have to commend those Lottery Post members and non-members who brought this issue up here and with the Tennessee Lottery. They could have said nothing knowing the problem existed and made a nice tidy profit from Tennessee Lottery's self-induced ignorance. My hat is off to you. You showed the lottery officials and the public what honesty and integrity looks like.

Comment #9

jim695 — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 20:03:49 GMT

from the article:

Lemmonds, who said he does not play Cash3 or Cash 4, said he just hopes the problem is fixed as it impacted many players.

I can't say I was surprised, he said, adding he hopes a similar problem does not occur again.

____________________________________

It's a pretty sad commentary when someone who doesn't even play the daily games notices the same anomalies we see in these faux drawings. Unfortunately, we know with relative certainty that this will happen... [ More ]

Comment #8

Todd — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 19:57:55 GMT

Good point, and good for you. I'm glad that this issue is making people stand up and take notice. It is upsetting to think that any lottery could get away with this by temporarily offering up a mere 20% prize increase. Then, it's back to business as usual. Maybe if enough people hold on to their money they will be force to do something mroe radical. Perhaps maybe even to listen to the players, who almost universally hate computerized drawings.

Comment #7

Todd — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 19:50:29 GMT

No, that's not true. The lottery did not officially state if they conducted test draws. You are thinking of the e-mail replies that went out -- which are NOT the same thing as making a statement.

The media (which is me in this case, since I wrote it) is being very precise in the wording, and it is a very important point. The lottery may be in a bind, because either they tested it or they didn't, and no matter which position they take (when they eventually take a position), they will have... [ More ]

Comment #6

Guru101 — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 19:41:13 GMT

I wonder if anyone who discovered this early tried to take advantage of it by not picking sets with duplicates.

Comment #5

JADELottery — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 19:29:49 GMT

You know what this reminds me of, Superman III. In the movie near the beginning, the Daily Planet had a raffle for a trip to South America. It was called 'Jingo', a simple mechanical ball drawn machine with a number inside the ball. The objective was to match 4 different numbers. During the picking, Mr. White says, 'Could we get a computer to do this?' Later near the end, they did get a computer. It blew-up during the draw; smoke came rolling out... lol... I can just imagine seeing this going on... [ More ]

Comment #4

psykomo — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 18:53:45 GMT

First, all the Lottery officials say computer RNG

software is the best invention since Tennessee....... whiskey

Now the Lottery officials say it is............................ FIXED

??????????????????????????????

WARNING RNG could be bad for your wallet

Comment #3

four4me — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 18:47:49 GMT

If you go to Tennessean.com and look for the search feature in the upper right hand corner of the page then click news and type in lottery you will get everything they printed about their lottery problems since starting the RNG software.

Comment #2

Rocket 455 — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 18:39:08 GMT

The Tennessee Lottery did not state whether or not they conduct their own series of test draws.

I thought that after complaints were made the lottery officials said they DID do test draws and that they came up with doubles. People reading this article will be misinformed. Such is media these days...

Comment #1

tnlotto1 — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 18:21:37 GMT

some people arent just boycotting the pick3,4 and lotto 5 some people are boycotting even the powerball and scratch offs that are not RNG related just so tennessee can see the players arent happy right now.

Engineer reported bad Tenn. Lottery computerized draws

Lottery Post — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 15:29:12 GMT

Tennessee Lottery was slow to act, even after repeated warnings from many players; many call for the return of real lottery drawings

The Tennessee Lottery appears to have been slow to investigate reports of a major flaw in its new computerized drawing system, even in the face of multiple warnings from players.

Lee Lemonds and his wife watch The Wheel of Fortune every night and because the lottery drawing comes on the same television station, they usually see it as well.

It didn't take... [ More ]