Are lotteries rigged?

Question

Why, for instance, do they stop selling Poweball tickets about 2 hours before the drawing? The terminals are all connected to a database. Is their system that slow or are they looking at what numbers not to draw out to build the jackpot and they need the time to rig it? Are the balls drawn out nothing more than a visual display of a predetermined out come much like the slot machine which determines win or lose on the next spin before you ever see it? Oh, no someone monitors it. Ya, Ok, And we've always had honest presidents of the U.S. and they have never lied to us either. I trust it less than Casino gaming.

Answer 1

your an idiot they dont rig lotteries y if they rig lotteries do ordinary people win it . and besides they dont need to rig it your chances of winning are like .00000001%

Answer 2

Yeah you are a stupid t**t if you think they rigged lotteries.

Answer 3

They shut down the terminals because they have millions of entries to compile.

The odds of winning are something like 170m-1 these days.  That's REALLY unlikely.  That's why there are a lot of rollovers.  Both the major lotteries in the US have added extra balls to cause more rollovers and make the odds longer.

The reason I don't buy the whole rigged argument is human nature.  If people were involved in this kind of multi million dollar fraud, someone sooner or later would get greedy or disgruntled and go to the media.  The fact that no one has ever come forward to blow the whistle, makes be believe it is on the up and up.  The sheer number of people that would be needed to rig things, means the odds of one of them getting mad and going to the media, are really high.

Answer 4

Lotteries rake in huge profits just the way things are. If they ever tried to cheat and got caught, they'd be shut down.

There is absolutely no reason whatsoever for them to risk that by cheating to gain a few dollars here and there.

Casinos don't cheat for the same reason.