Web site press release reveals plan — is it a trial balloon or just bad news?
By Todd Northrop
Tennessee Lottery issued a statement on their web site that threatens to bring unpopular computerized drawings to the state.
The upstart lottery, which in relative terms is still attempting to gain solid footing in the industry, made the announcement despite numerous player polls showing mistrust and discontent with the faux drawings.
The lottery claims computerized drawings are "exciting", although player polls suggest that any excitement from lottery drawings comes as the result of seeing real lottery balls being mixed in a spinning drum and drawn one at a time — both of which are missing from computerized drawings.
The Tennessee Lottery statement also mentions that other states are using computerized drawings, but fails to mention that it has been several years since any state has gone computerized.
(The last state to go computerized was Wisconsin in 2004. It took place just before the computerized drawings controversy stated gaining widespread recognition. Full story here: https://www.lotterypost.com/news/100094.htm)
Computerized drawings, unlike real drawings that use numbered balls selected from a tumbling drum, do not take place in the real world. They are a computer program, which cannot be seen, heard, or televised.
For this reason, lottery players have shunned the technique as untrustworthy and prone to unseen errors.
Such was the case with California's Daily Derby game, which uses a computerized drawing system. For many months in 2005 certain combinations of numbers that were bought by players turned out to have no chance of winning.
The problem was with a computerized drawing program, which contained a bug that went undiscovered for months. Only after a player noticed odd patterns in the draw results did the California Lottery investigate and subsequently discover the bug.
(Full story: https://www.lotterypost.com/news/112810.htm)
For lottery players who bought losing tickets during that time, the small bonus programs offered by the lottery to make up for the buggy drawings was not much compared to the jackpots they may have won if their tickets had a chance.
There are no telling how many glitches — big or small — that exist in the memory banks and storage systems of computerized drawing systems, because lottery players have no way to visually inspect the drawing as it takes place.
When states offer the chance to witness a computerized drawing, the person "witnessing" the drawing only sees a button being pressed. The actual drawing logic is impossible to see, since it only exists as bit and bytes inside a computer.
Almost 4,000 lottery players have signed the Petition for True Lottery Drawings at Lottery Post, which calls for the elimination of computerized drawings across the United States.
The petition educates lottery players about the dangers and risks of computerized drawings.
The web site also offers a State Lottery Report Card (https://www.lotterypost.com/lottery-report-card.asp), that shows the computerized or traditional drawing status of every state and game played in the United States, Canada, and United Kingdom.
States receive a grade of "F" when they do not offer traditional lottery drawings for any game in their state.
Sorry to sound skeptical but where are these player polls you speak of that show this distrust of computer random number generators?
Thanks for this story, Todd.
Tennessee players should not stand for this- make your voices known ! Let the lottery commission know that you will not stand for this.
I am surprised at Rebecca Paul Hargrove - she ran the Ga lottery to perfection so she should know better than this !!!
Talk about a system just begging for corruption.
y/w. I agree with you. I am *SHOCKED* that she would do such a &$#&^% thing.
These computerized drawing VENDORS (gthe ones who make the equipment) are tenacious, and will say anything to make these lottery folks feel good about computerized drawings. My guess is they have convinced Rebecca and others.
In fact, I've been contacted by a few myself -- they are trying to convince me how great they are, so that i will soften my tone. I *will not* let that color my opinion, which is based on right vs. wrong, not on some marketing principles.
All you Tennessee folks need to VERY ACTIVELY contact the lottery non-stop. Let them hear how upset you are! And when you write, BE RESPECTFUL!
im glad you will continue to speak your mind Todd no matter what companies contact you. i havent heard anything positive about RNG except from the actual lottery websites. i havent read anything from players from those states has said anything positive about winning.
Please take a moment as I just did to use the contact form on the Tenn Lottery page to let them know lottery players demand honest draws to fake draws made in a computer program. BobP
http://www.tnlottery.com/contactus/contact.aspx
Where are ya Lottomike ?
He must be so pi$$ed he drove to Nashville to confront them directly !!!
I hope he didn't fall over dead with a heart attack!!! I'm getting scared.
i agree doubledown because i keep logging on to see what lottomike will have to say about it
There are no telling how many glitches — big or small — that exist in the memory banks and storage systems of computerized drawing systems, because lottery players have no way to visually inspect the drawing as it takes place.
Wasn't there a problem a year or so ago with Kansas where they drew the same number for a couple of days because of a computer glitch???
Kind of just curious. When I hear people say "let them know you will not stand for this..." in regards to what govt entities plan to do...well I guess I'm jaded. Probably been in the realworld too many years. Found out the realworld is nothing like the teachers in school say it is....
Other than sending a protest in writing/email etc...what exactly do you think can be done? They have the power to do what they want. Just like Wisconsin did ; went to RNG. They look around and see that it saves them a bunch of money, the diehard players mostly dislike it, but it's still "the only game in town". So they do what they want and placate the public with pretty words. In the end its the same. Them with the power decides.
So if I'm hearing you right, we should just roll over ?
I'm glad our founding fathers didn't just let them with power decide.
Respectfully, I disagree.
I believe Lottery Post and all its members has had a big impact on preventing more states from going computerized over the past 4 years. Even with the aggressive sales tactics of the computerized drawing system makers, they have not been making much headway -- up until now.
Yes, it makes sense to do raffle drawing by computer, because it does not make sense to buy a drum filled wil 500,000 lottery balls. So the systems makers have been selling those. But not traditional games.
Don't resign yourself so easily. There will always be challenges, and you have to decide how you will react to the challenges.
the reason they want to do this I guess is, they don't need to have a paid sexpot pointing to the ball machine or even the studio setup and all that and because this way if any of you find some way to systemize the TN lottery they can have the computer keep one step ahead and keep changing their algorithms. I stay away from games like that so it will either backfire or it will mean virtually nobody getting anywhere ahead by playing the TN lottery. Glad it isn't here in nj. Yet.
Well, that's what they're sold by the vendors, but that tiny amount of money saved becomes a big loss in revenue when offset against all the discontented players. They don't tell the lottery about that part.
Sent an E-mail to the lottery commission, and hopeing all the Tenn players do the same. It's true it won't do a thing unless you contact every official and tell them it's a bad move. But, if every player there cut their amount they spend by $5.00 it would hit em where it hurts. The players need to have the intestonal fortitude and stick by it if they want to be heard...!
Good luck Tennessee......!
Is anybody familiar with the outcome of the immigration bill?
Call, call, call especially if you play in Tennessee.
Call the lottery commisssion often. Everyday, everybody. They have to have a phone number.
here you go:
Player Services: (877) 7TN-PLAY
Retailer Services: (800) 826-4311
Mailing Address:
P.O. Box 23470
Nashville, TN 37202
Phoenix Lottery Office
Plaza Tower Metro Center
200 Athens Way Suite 200
Nashville, TN 37228
(615) 253-6881
Those contact us aspx go straight to who knows wherever. They can't disregard real mail and real voices.
That's almost ancient history now in any case. This isn't 1776. Why do you think people run for elected office and spend man, many, many times what the job pays to get elected? They know how much power resides in the position. How many non-millionaires get elected to office and when they leave they are multi-millionaires? They easily take and encourage the "protests" of the people because they know they have the power, and therefore the last word.
It's even worse with the non-elected bureaucrats. At least with elected officials, there is some accountabililty in that they have to run for election again. WIth the bureaucrats, they are in their positions until they retire or decide to go elsewhere. No accountability at all.
If protestation makes you feel good, go for it. Just don't expect it will change what they plan to do.
I would like to see some figures somewhere about how much revenue is lost when a state goes RNG. It doesn't seem to have affected WI at all since 2004 when they switched. I don't know of any complaints by our LC that revenue is dropping. If anything, with the price of gasoline so high, what is suffering is the "impulse sales" in the convenience stores...where people would by a drink or a snack, they are cutting back on those before they cut back on their lottery tickets.
Frankly, I think the majority of players buying their tickets at the convenience store wouldn't be able to tell you if the draws are mechanical or RNG. They just keep buying their tickets. We have to remember that people who are registered here on LP are not "typical" lottery players. If what was said in the past (i.e. 70% of winners are qps) holds true, that's because about 70% of players are not interested in all the details of drawings enough to try and determine what numbers will fall....and instead just fork over their money figuring "today will be my lucky day". Such people wouldn't be interested enough in the whole picture to be a member of LP. My 2 cents worth.
well..........first the online thing happens where that goes down the drain and now tennessee probably goes computerized.i have never had more bad luck in the past year or so.i spent all of last year fighting the online gaming ban now i'll spend this year fighting this computer draws fiasco.yep i damn near had a heart attack from the dang shock of seeing that rebecca paul would even consider such a double cross.i'm afraid computer draws are the cancer of the lottery......
I agree with you about the politicians- especially the career ones !
I disagree with you about standing up for a belief or a principle. It must be done or else the system wins. You have to stand for something or you will fall for anything, as the song says.....
Change : That remains to be seen.
I agree with contacting politicians about this but we as players who don't want this to happen can also stop playing which will cause the lottery to see their downfall with a cut in revenue. That would be a good cause for them to change it(lottery) back or get rid of it. I don't think they would get rid of it after seeing all the money they made before.
1. contact the lottery and let your voice be heard
2. contact your politician
3. stop playing or don't play as much
That's a great story Todd. I hope Tennessee doesn't get it computerized in all games. I want all games to be fair (ball drawn).
Me too.
DO any of these so called........... VENDoe's (and lobby groups) ?????
yes>>>>>> like Ven & Doe (like $$)
tell the lottery board that they are REALLY selling..... QPs for...."real cheap"
is STUPID enough to play >>.."Quick TRIX"
Bye Buy...u-ALL
(after I reduce all the darn expence's of slaving over a HOT lottery)
time fer lil old me to RETIRE $$$
after all the lilo years of working all my lilo fingernail$$$$ to bone!
YES^^^^^^I did it my way^^^^^^^????????????????????????
GLAD we could work so HARDLY for all you lilo SUCKER'sssssssss
"PALM BEACH"
HERE>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>I CUMMM'$$
LOL (I DESERVE the JACKPOT) kaus I fingered out >> RNG
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
For those that sent TN Lottery an email, has anyone heard back from them? I sent them a "nice" email and they sent me an automated message that someone would get back with me but haven't heard...just wondering.
same here.they sent me an automated message and i haven't heard anything either.we probably won't.........
I watched the lotto 5 drawing tonight and the lady said,"remember the new tennessee lotto drawing start saturday july 28th" so i guess that is the start of the RNG. our emails must have been ignored because the decision was already made. ill also put this in my blog
thanks for that info,i've been wondering when the computerized draws would start.its sad.....