mississippi United States
Member #34,477
March 3, 2006
6,070 Posts
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do they..the state lotteries pretest everygame before they draw and if so..do they pretest the same amount of times before every draw?..because I didnt really know they pretested anything..that explains quite a bit..that will explain why a set of numbers I am looking for will come out in a certain time frame I am depending on..and next time it will be double or tripple time which would indicate that the number/s I was looking for may have showed in a predraw and was discarded and I had to wait for the cycle to come around again..I have read a few things on here about pretest but wasnt for sure that was what all of you were talking about..I am just curious is all..if it is true I may have to take that into consideration from now on..
"Attention all Mathematicians: Check your degree at the door because when it comes to whole numbers you are the Amateur"
Dump Water Florida United States
Member #380
June 5, 2002
3,577 Posts
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The state of Florida conducts several pre-draws prior to the real drawing. If they don't like the results they try another machine ballset combination. I have no idea exactly how many tests they do or what they are looking for but I assume if the same number(s) keep coming up they can't take the chance it's just random and set the machine ballset combination aside for a checkup.
If the game were totaly random, they wouldn't have to rotate machines and ballsets. The fact they do, tells us there is something to hide.
MD United States
Member #1,701
June 18, 2003
10,731 Posts
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It's my understanding in Maryland that the ball sets they will use for a drawing are picked by a computer. Leaving out the human element as to some employee favoring a specific set of balls in their locked ball cabinets. All the balls in the cabinets are calibrated to within specific weights and measurements. Before each drawing they do pretests to validate the balls and machines before the draw for auditing purposes and to insure that each machine is functioning properly. The whole process can take up to 4 hrs. prior to the actual draw.
What bothers me the most is how do we know when they supposedly draw the balls on live TV that we are seeing the actual drawing and not some pre screened/taped drawing that they did during the pre test. On more than on occasion I've heard people say the announcer of the balls during the drawing was not even present for the news cast. The person that announces the balls during the drawing is usually the person who is anchoring the weather broadcast. And he hadn't appeared on the weather broadcast during the shows time frame.
Wandering Aimlessly United States
Member #25,359
November 5, 2005
4,461 Posts
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The state of Florida conducts several pre-draws prior to the real drawing. If they don't like the results they try another machine ballset combination. I have no idea exactly how many tests they do or what they are looking for but I assume if the same number(s) keep coming up they can't take the chance it's just random and set the machine ballset combination aside for a checkup.
If the game were totaly random, they wouldn't have to rotate machines and ballsets. The fact they do, tells us there is something to hide.
BobP
Bob, is this done for all games? I never really thought about it until I got on this board, but it does concern me. I don't understand the statement "if they don't like the results" because who makes that decision? If the balls are carefully measured, weighed, checked for density and whatever might influence the outcome of a draw before they are used, I don't understand why they even need to be tested before a game, but I'm not a scientist or mathematician. I just googled the words ballset and pretest and the first link was the Texas lottery. They test 6 times and they list the pre-draws on their site. This is a quote:
Pre-tests are conducted to ensure the drawing machines are functioning correctly and the balls are being selected in a random fashion. The testing of the machines utilizes two selection options, remote control selection and manual selection. Currently Lotto Texas requires 6 pre-tests. If no ball is selected 5 times, the ball set passes the pre-test.
So what are they saying? That no number can come up 5 times out of 6? I guess that's fair, but it's not random. Random to me means anything is possible. So if this is true for Florida and someone has been hoping to win for many years, it's very possible that his numbers actually were drawn, maybe even more than once throughout the years, but he wouldn't know it. Right? Then maybe having favorite numbers means nothing because maybe last week they came up in test #2 and 3 months ago were picked in test #4.