Pick3 lotto ball size...

Reply #9

four4me — Wed, 19 Jul 2006 05:09:54 GMT

I know a lot about the Garron company as i was a machinist and worked with people who worked with them. In the beginning they used regular ping pong balls with hand painted numerals on them. Now the numerals are silk screened on. As the technology evolved so did the process by which they manufactured the balls and machines. Apparently since ping pong balls were basically used in bingo machines there was a natural progression to use them in lottery machines. If you surfed any of the web pages on

Reply #8

Rip Snorter — Wed, 19 Jul 2006 01:40:49 GMT

Interesting thread this has turned into pumpi.

In the casinos around here they have several games involving balls, including keno, hot-table draws, etc. I'd always assumed it was just pingpong balls with numbers on them, assumed the lottery draws were, also.

Guess I'm going to have a closer look next time I'm over that way.

You bring up some intriguing questions sometimes.

Jack

Reply #7

pumpi76 — Wed, 19 Jul 2006 01:33:11 GMT

jee, i didn't know they use pin-pong balls...Here in Ga they must have the balls a little bit smaller because the balls that i be seen don't look like ping pong balls, but they could be the same material...What i was saying is who determined which one was going to be the right size for the lotto balls. Who made that decision...Or they just said one day: let's use pin-pong balls and stick with it ...Also the size of the hopper, who makes the decision about what's going to be the right size of... [ More ]

Reply #6

four4me — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 22:15:58 GMT

here is a link to one of the places that make the balls for pick3/4

http://www.garronlottery.com/greatBALLS.htm

Reply #5

JimmySand9 — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 20:18:28 GMT

Texas uses ping-pong balls for Cash Five and Pick 3.

Rubber balls are also very common. GA, for example, uses them for all of their games. NY and IL uses rubber balls for their pick-5 and pick-6, but also uses ping-pong balls for the digit games. And FL, PA, and NJ uses ping-pong balls for all of their in-state games.

Mega Millions and Powerball use rubber balls, BTW.

Reply #4

GASMETERGUY — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 17:47:30 GMT

I wonder if different states use different calibre ping-pong balls? Or balls of different weights?

Unless the states that use ball drawings use balls of equal diameter, weight, mass, ect., predicting a set of numbers for all states would be ludicrous. A win would be nothing more than co-incidence.

Is there any way to check this out

Reply #3

Rip Snorter — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 16:24:15 GMT

Heavier balls would be far less susceptable to non-random influences.

For instance, bowling balls would be almost impossible to influence, even if they left the finger holes in them.

I suspect they use lighter, smaller balls to allow them to influence them more easily.

A compromise, using 1 inch solid steel ball bearings would be extremely difficult to influence and would greatly increase the confidence of players concerning the determination of lottery officials to have an honest game.... [ More ]

Reply #2

Just6ntlc — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 15:34:06 GMT

I think they use ping pong balls in most states except for Texas. It depends on what state you're in. It's totally random and fair.

Reply #1

Rip Snorter — Mon, 17 Jul 2006 22:26:02 GMT

Pick3 lotto ball size...

pumpi76 — Mon, 17 Jul 2006 00:37:20 GMT

Guys have you ever wonder how they choose the size of the pin-pong looking lotto balls in pick3 and pick4? The reason is that if you design the balls bigger than what they actually are, the game will be less random?YOu ever wonder how they decide all that..