I am new. The first thing I picked up on LP was a difference in terms: lotto and lottery... and I still get 'em mixed up.
The wife of a kid I grew up with just finished her career in a State lotto/lottery commission admin office. The State began with Power ball, then added P3 later on... I started playing P3 and HotLotto a short time ago and really don't have enough time-in-service to comment in length about fixed games, only opinion.
But in conversation with my old pal and his wife regarding her in-house stories and comment, I'd have a hard time accepting the games are rigged. The lotto/lottery offices usually have a lot of employees... and you probably know yourself that secrets don't stay private very long at the water cooler. It wouldn't take much for an ambitious ladder-climber, moralist, or whistle-blower to drop the dime... No one would want to be implicated when word got out - prison orange is not appealing.
Nothing kills business quicker than dishonesty. If you’ve got a money makin' machine going without thumbing the scales, it would be just plain stupid to put the whole thing on the line to make a few more bucks. And the way I hear it, security's pretty tight in those offices - everyone’s watchin' everyone.
Sure, they can change the matrix, machines, and go from ping-pong balls to zeros and ones, but it would seem the first thing they'd want is to be able to prove at anytime, the system is above reproach... there's just too much to lose.
Of course, there's always the occasional employee who tries to cook the books; and again, all they gotta do is flip the matrix when they think they need a bigger bite of the apple – and most players know what happens to the odds when they do.... So from that perspective, I guess you can say it's legally fixed. But then, hey, they publish the odds, and nobody has any beef because they can always say, "If you don't like long-shot odds, don't play - no one put a gun to your head forcing you to buy tickets."
I'm willing to bet, even when they tighten odds via matrix change, pre tests, and adding mixer-machines, etc., they'll still have plenty of players with sharp pencils crunchin' the numbers and trackin’ stats - people trying to find the way to beat the system. Yeah, don't want to rock the boat when you're milkin' the cow; they don't want even the appearance of corruption; and the way I hear it, they take extra measures to ensure an honest game: just like casinos, it's not necessary to stack decks and load the wheel - the odds are already with 'em... just a matter of sittin' back, countin' profit dollars.
I tend to get too cynical sometimes, myself. Sure enough, it's a good thing that players hold LotComs feet to fire, especially when they start gettin’ greedy. I would like to see a quarterly National Lotto/Lottery where they don’t get any money except admin costs, the game design has 7 pay-out tiers, and lucky winners walk, tax free.