The Lottery

[BlackMason]

They can tell the computer to generate a no win combination so they can snow ball the jackpot.

This is only conceivably possible if the winning numbers are known beforehand. The air and gravity mix machine outputs are extremely difficult to manipulate, making your earlier comparison to casino slot machines out of place.

Not true. If I, the lottery board, know all number combinations played, why do I need to know the winning numbers before hand? Why can't I simply negate all played combinations? This is exactly what I'm claiming.

- No conspiracy is needed to progress jackpots, simply change the rules of the lottery. The 6/49 game has a chance of winning the jackpot of about 1:14,000,000. The larger U.S. lottery's have gone to a two barrel system, 5/75 and 1/15 as an example, yielding a jackpot winning chance of 1:258,000,000. This is the reason why there are frequently no jackpot winners and few multiple jackpot winners, not some conspiracy.

The lottery is heavily regulated. South Africa has a population of around 51 million people. It would be unethical to make a lottery game with 1:258,000,000. The 6/49 actually has odds of 1:13,983,816. I believe the ethical and bureaucratic issues are one of the reasons we were late on the power ball scene ( 5/45 + 1/20 1:24,435,180).

I think BlackMason was referring to the quickpick option for generating a ticket.

No I wasn't. If the infrastructure is there why not use it. On the same day of each lottery draw, they release stats. This happens a few hours after said draw. Computers are keeping track of all combinations. If you read up on the history of the lotto you'd discover it's not so clean history. I think I have a reasonable if not strong case here.

Before you waste your time...

I think you're wasting mine.