Four4me:
The way it works is as follows:
The Hoosier Lottery has no published liability limits. Rather than ratify such limits as other state lotteries have, the Hoosier Lottery prefers instead to actively track player selections on a central computer. Now, with their RNG machine connected to their central computer, a piece of code can be written to scan its database, find the number with the least amount of play, and then instruct the RNG to render that combination. This enables the Hoosier Lottery to minimize payouts on their daily games, no matter how many tickets are sold.
Conversely, it also allows them to build the Pick-6 Lotto jackpot to any amount they determine, in order to increase ticket sales for that game. Twice, we've had jackpots for this 6/48 game which reached $28M. Since our rollovers are not based on ticket sales, as they are in other states, it takes a minimum of sdventeen weeks to build to that amount. Our lotto doesn't begin to roll over until the third consecutive draw without a winner, and then it's only in half-million-dollar increments, again, regardless of how many tickets are sold. If they sell twenty million tickets, the rollover is still only a half-mil. This figure is not improbable, as we have four border states, and we get many players from Michigan, Illinois, Ohio and Kentucky. At times they sell more tickets than there are combinations, somehow, impossibly, avoiding the one with six winning numbers. The odds against this happening, according to an Indiana University mathematician I consulted, are approximately 1.3 billion to 1. This is comparable to a DNA profile; it cannot be convincingly disputed.
Almost all of the evidence we've collected came from public sources available to anyone. However, as you pointed out, these sources can't always be trusted, so every single page we have has been verified either through personal interviews or through public records obtained via Indiana's Access to Public Records Act or the federal Freedom of Information Act.
LosingJeff and I have worked very hard to find this information, and even harder to verify it. So when you miss something as basic as parimutuel payouts, and then attempt to use that information to dispute what we know is true, I'm going to have something to say about it. We are both very tired. This investigation has consumed most of our free time since we joined forces last February (I've been working on it since June, 2003). LosingJeff works twelve-hour days, and then resumes the fight when he gets home. On a good night, he might be able to log four hours of sleep before going to work, and then the process begins all over again. It's not as tough on me, because I'm retired, but his loyalty to me and his dedication to this inquiry are beyond reproach. Without his contributions to this investigation, I wouldn't have half the information I have on this crooked agency.
My praise of this ex-Marine is not for his benefit, but for yours. He can attest that, indeed, you can predict winning numbers for Indiana all day long, provided you stop short of actually buying a ticket. Once you plunk your money on the counter, you've just taken yourself out of the game, unless you happen to pick the number with the least amount of play, in which case you'll have to overcome those odds, too. In fact, there are 288 straight numbers in our Daily-3 game which haven't been drawn in over four years. I haven't had the time to search 10,000 Daily-4 numbers, but I can tell you that LosingJeff has played two of them every single day since he retired from the Corps in 1996, and they have never been drawn in any order. There was another number he used to play every day, without fail, until 27MAY04, when we met with Hoosier Lottery officials. I didn't leave his house until after 8pm, so he didn't buy his tickets that night. This was the first time in eight years he missed playing that number and, coincidently, that's the first and only time it was ever drawn. I have no doubt that the Hoosier Lottery has segregated certain numbers from the Daily-4, and I know for a fact that they have omitted nearly 30% of the field (288 out of 1,000) for the Daily-3.
This alone doesn't prove anything; it could be plain old bad luck. But when you look at this incident with everything else we've uncovered, it becomes much more significant. What we've had to sort through are countless little coincidences, each one meaningless by itself, but all of them with one common thread: they don't happen in any other state lottery.
We also have mathematical proof that the odds for our Daily-4 game approach 1 in 40,000, rather than the advertised odds of 1 in 10,000. Again, this evidence cannot be disputed; math doesn't lie. If you should happen to predict Indiana's number for any given day, that's great; pat yourself on the back, but speaking for those of us who live here, you'll understand if we don't get too excited and run out and buy a ticket.
The Hoosier Lottery has operated behind a curtain of complete and total secrecy since 2000, nearly five years now. Coincidently, they stopped airing a live broadcast of the drawings, which is required by state law, on the same day they instituted their new RNG. They told the network affiliates who carried the drawing that their broadcast equipment was no longer compatible with the new RNG format, and therefore they would not be renewing their contract. I asked WPTA's assistant programming coordinator, who sat in on part of that meeting, why they coudn't just point a TV camera at the RNG's computer monitor as they had pointed it at the mechanical draw machines. She said she didn't understand the Hoosier Lottery's objections; a broadcast is a broadcast.
LosingJeff and I must deal with this type of nonsense on a daily basis, so when you, or others, belittle our efforts by glancing at a state lottery's website and then post limited conclusions as fact to dispute what we've discovered and verified, you had better duck, because I'm going to come out swinging. I've posted much of what we've collected on the forum in various threads. If you're interested, put yourself to some effort and look them up; I'm too tired to do it for you.
On a positive note, I received word recently that Representative Bob Alderman has sponsored a bill which would force the Hoosier Lottery to return to mechanical draw machines and a live, televised broadcast. Whether or not this bill passes remains to be seen, and while that alone won't make up for what these criminals have done, LosingJeff and I agree that it's a step in the right direction.
Another significant development is this one: Since Mitch Daniels took the reigns as our new governor, the payouts in our daily games have been, for the most part, remarkably higher. Just another coincidence, I suppose.