I read this earlier on the internet.
POWERBALL, May 26 /PRNewswire/ -- The Powerball drawing for Wednesday,
May 25, 2005, was delayed 42 minutes due to a minor problem with Powerball
security procedures. The drawing was held in the presence of a city police
officer and an independent auditing firm, was videotaped, and was displayed on
the Powerball website at http://www.powerball.com.
The official numbers drawn were: 27-29-31-42-46 and the red Powerball: 33.
The Power Play multiplier was 2. The jackpot was estimated at $180 million
but turned out to be $182 million with a cash option of $103.2 million.
Before a drawing can be held, Powerball rules require that every state
involved in the game confirm that two identical copies of the play data are in
the possession of independent computer systems. One of the member lotteries
(Iowa) was unable to confirm that two valid copies of the data were held by
independent parties and so the drawing was delayed until both sites could be
secured by lottery officials.
"We understand that security and trust is the most important product that
a lottery has to sell," said Chuck Strutt, director of the group that is owned
and operated by the 29 lotteries that run the Powerball game. "The lotteries
require absolute assurance that the computer records of the players' tickets
are complete, balanced, and secure. If we cannot get that assurance by draw
time, then we delay the drawing until we are assured that every player's
ticket is properly recorded and secured. Nobody likes to delay a drawing for
a big jackpot like this, but security never takes a backseat to public
relations."
The drawing was delayed past the satellite time reserved by the Multi-
State Lottery Association and so could not be uplinked to the more than 90
television stations that air the drawing. The drawing was videotaped in front
of drawing officials, which include a city police officer and an independent
auditing firm. The drawing is also available at the Powerball web site.
The Power Play is a feature that allows players to multiply their prizes
by the multiplier number drawn. The most common number drawn is "5", but
players can also multiply their numbers by 2, 3, or 4. On March 31, 110
players used numbers from a Chinese fortune cookie to match five of the
numbers drawn to win Powerball's second prize of $100,000 in cash. There were
21 players who also purchased the Power Play option and multiplied their prize
by five to win a half-million dollars in cash.
Contact:
Doug Orr
Multi-State Lottery Association
515-453-1404
SOURCE Multi-State Lottery Association
Web Site: http://www.musl.com http://www.powerball.com