No need to mess with RNG. Lotteries can cheat players far more easily, legally. PA Fast Play tickets are pre-determinate. When one plays, the lottery computer generates a Fast Play ticket constrained by the number of prizes allocated less those already awarded. Similar to how physical instant tickets work.
PA Lottery Fast Play - Hot Numbers top prizes remaining as of Apr-26-2017:
TOP SIX PRIZES |
WINS REMAINING |
$50,000 |
9 |
$5,000 |
74 |
$1,000 |
1,007 |
$500 |
2,693 |
$100 |
26,954 |
$50 |
48,514 |
Some lotteries (don't recall off top of my head which) generate fast play tickets truly at random with the odds of winning being identical for all plays. PA Fast Play odds of winning is not equal per play. As more tickets are generated, the odds become skewed. Sometimes in favor of the player, sometimes not. While that should, in theory, equal out over various games, it may not if the lottery pulls games early. A common practice with physical instant tickets even when top tier prizes are still remaining.
As for transparency, there seems to be far less for instant games verses numbers games. I'm not aware of any lottery that discloses how instant prizes (applicable to PA and NJ Fast Play games as well due to prize allocation structure; pre-determinate) are seeded. Nor the related matter of when and how such games are pulled.
It's important to note that the lottery and/or its vendor knows exactly where the winners are located for physical instant tickets. I've heard and read too many tales, including those from lottery retailers, telling of lottery agents issuing orders / personally visiting to promptly remove particular instant game pack(s) from sale despite top prize(s) remaining.
The above isn't directly applicable with PA Fast Play tickets, since they're are generated by a central lottery computer, but some of the issues are similar. Is the odds of winning a particular prize, of those remaining, truly possible at a given time? What I mean by that is, say one top prize has been awarded in the past 5 minutes, will the lottery computer allow another top prize win within a short period from the same terminal? Or is the generation of top prize winners throttled? And/or by quotas across the state. So many questions, and so few answers.
To digress, at a physical casino, on slots (akin to instant games) odds of winning a top prize, generally, regardless of past prizes awarded, is exactly the same. Not the case with physical instant tickets nor PA Fast Play.
In short, assume PA Fast Play tickets aren't truly random with the real odds, after the first ticket being sold, being different from the stated odds much like physical instant tickets. Check the PA Lottery Fast Play page frequently for number of prizes remaining, and play accordingly.