Hi Nigel,
Don't be so hard on yourself bro. Depending on what you mean when you say that you're using technology to help pick numbers, you should be proud that at your age you're delving deep into the mysterious abyss and mythology of the lottery.
To address a few things in your reply:
This may sound contradictory to some, but I'm not sure that there
is something to "figure out". There are so many factors that come into play when a lotto drawing is to take place. And each one of them is capable of varying degrees of effectiveness. If all you were to examine was the actual drawing itself, you would be overwhelmed with the infinite possibilities of contributing factors as to
why the numbers that came out, did. That is a little vague. I'm sorry. I shall elaborate a bit below.
Picture, if you will, the tiny little room used as a studio big enough to hold the lottery tumbler, a host or 2 and 1 camera man. But in this case, let's go inside this room. While we are inside, there are no limits to what we can examine and no time limits either. Nothing is off limits and everyone involved must do everything exactly as we ask. I would imagine that the 1st place we'd want to look is the lottery tumbler machine and the numbered balls that go inside. Now, what if...and it's a big "if", we decide that we want to have each of those 49 balls weighed with a laboratory caliber electronic scale to check for variations. ***In real life, they actually do this before each and every draw to make sure that there are no fluctuations*** And what if we discovered that 6 of those 49 balls actually weighed a very tiny bit more than the others? Or, maybe they weighed a lot more than the others. If that's the case, that means that those 6 balls will spend more time closer to the bottom of the tumbler where the shoot is that they come out of. In terms of physics, those 6 balls (or at least most of them)
should be the ones to drop and not the other 42. To give credibility to this hypothesis, I call your attention to the fact that this very scenario did in fact occur at least once in history. I believe it was somewhere in the US, the 4 people that are the only ones allowed in the room during the draw were in on a scam. What they did was brilliant, in theory. There is
always a lottery official present in the room during a draw. He or she is the only one allowed to carry the tray of balls from a vault to the tumbler. This is to ensure no tampering can occur. But, the official in this case was in on the scam too! These 4 waited until the draw got carried over into the 10s of millions before they put their plan to work. The official, who's job it is to weigh the balls prior to the draw is alone in the vault during the inspection. He used a syringe and injected a small amount of white paint into 6 of the balls. This pretty much ensured that these heavier balls would be the ones to drop. These would be the numbers that these 4 people would play or have played for them since most jurisdictions do not allow lottery employees to partake in the lottery or any of it's other services. Well, the plan worked just as they figured. If memory serves, I believe what got them caught was that after the tickets had been cashed, all of them suddenly quit their jobs there. A little suspicious, don't ya think? But, greed has it's ways of clouding the mind. So you see, in this one example, simple physics demonstrated how the lottery could be successfully manipulated in one's favor.
Actually, physics quite possibly could come into play in other ways without the intention of "cheating". I'm just speculating here, but what if the temperature and humidity in the room had an effect on the machine and/or the lotto balls? What if the amount of friction of certain balls was +/-greater than the rest? What if the tumbler machine in some way had an effect on the way balls are juggled around and eventually dropped? What if....? See my point?
For a little clarification, the WCLC (Western Canada Lottery Commission) owns more than 1 tumbler. If I recall, I think 6/49 has access to 6 machines and several sets of 49 balls. The same would go for all the other lottos. Apparently, it's an all day event for the officials at WCLC when a draw is to be made. Yes, they do weigh the balls.
All of them. Yes, they run test draws on all the tumbler machines to determine if one machine produces a certain pattern of results. I'm sure there's more to the mechanical end of it, but you get my drift.
On the more technical end lays a whole new beast all together. The electronic lottery terminals that print out your tickets! Don't think for a moment that either someone or something (such as a computer with tracking software) isn't monitoring the number combinations being purchased. Exactly what they do with that information would only be speculation at this point. But, it does allow "them" a certain amount of control now doesn't it? As someone posted earlier, perhaps they don't pick the numbers but instead choose whether or not the jackpot is going to be allowed to be won tonight. Depending on how you perceive that, wouldn't
both of those factors have to be used to let the jackpot go???
These lottery terminals are also the same machines that spit out those "quick picks". If that isn't enough to make you go hmmm....I don't know what would. Think about it, with 6/49 you have odds that are 1 in almost 14 million. From coast to coast, when a draw reaches a big jackpot and more tickets are sold, are they implying that
no one got a ticket with those 6 numbers when the draw winds up being carried over??? Well, apparently that's exactly what they want us to believe. And believe we will because that 1 out of 14 million combinations was excluded from that draw! Argue it if you want, readers, but I think that's one dirty little secret they don't want us to know.
You asked me if it would make any difference if someone "figured out" the lottery system. I guess that depends to whom. For one, who wouldn't take full advantage of having some sort of inside knowledge and win a big jackpot...or two...or three? To the commission, I don't think it would matter one iota. Here's why. The jackpot published only represents the
minimum amount to be won. If you check out your local lottery stats, they should tell you that the jackpot is actually only about 80% of the "Pool's Fund". That means the commission is
always in a win-win situation. The "Prize Fund" is 47% of the sales!
NOW do you think they care?
WOW! I do tend to go on & on don't I? LOL Feel free to ask anything else you like and as always...GOOD LUCK!