Is the lottery rigged?

[Bushknew]

I just bought a lottery ticket here in Los Angeles.

I asked for a quick pick but it took the machine 3 minutes for it to spit it out.

During that time I asked, whatÕs the delay?

Oh, itÕs dialing the satellite, she said.

WTF, I said to myself.

I always thought that the people at the lottery had no idea what everyone elseÕs numbers were until AFTER the drawing.

Apparently, the good people at the lottery already know what everybodyÕs numbers are
Before the drawing.

Anyone else smell a rat?

[FlashHarry]

1. I'm guessing the number is generated off-site

And the terminal was dialling the central computer. Just a guess. Then again, I've never won, despite years of playing, so it must be rigged!

[Bushknew]

4. he he

I thought the numbers were generated at the store, making it truly random but I guess itÕs much more controlled than that.

[SmileyBoy]

2. I used to punch up Minnesota lottery numbers at my old job...

...and the numbers would ALWAYS spit out automatically.

It only did what you're describing if the computer was rebooting for a new day when we opened in the morning.

[Dookus]

3. no...

there's no reason to rig the lottery. The same way Las Vegas casinos don't need to cheat - the game is structured so that he who runs the game can't possibly lose.

Why risk a legal multi-million dollar enterprise for a few extra bucks?

I laugh when people tell me that casino blackjack dealers, for instance, are cheating. They don't NEED to cheat!

Plus, if they were that good with the cards, they wouldn't be standing behind the table for 15 bucks an hour plus tips. They'd be in a home poker game making thousands.

[7th_Sephiroth]

5. but they still cheat

absolute power corrupts absolutely, besides if you look at lottey drawings, only a few balls bounce high enought to escape, the rest have liquid in them, weighing them down

[Dookus]

7. lol....

no, they don't. Believe me, if the powers that be controlled the California Lottery, we wouldn't have so many mexican gardeners win it.

NOTE: I'm GLAD they win it. Don't want people to think I'm being racist.

[Whitacre D_WI]

6. My opponent, Jim Sensenbrenner,

he of the multimillion-dollar Kimberly Clark fortune, won the DC lottery a few years ago.

One of his staffers just won it recently.

[Padraig18]

8. No, it's honest...

... but you get better odds from the Mob, or Vegas. State lotteries are TRULY sucker games.

[Dookus]

9. actually....

I'm a bit of a gambler myself. There ARE times when the state lotteries make sense. When the jackpots get huge, they actually are good bets.

As long as the payoff exceeds the odds of an event happening, it's a good bet, even if the odds are long.

Say it's 23 million to 1 to win. If the jackpot is over twice that, it's a good bet (because you'll have to split the pot, often). The odds are still long, but it's not a bad bet.

[SmileyBoy]

10. I only buy Powerball when the pot goes over $100 million.

I buy a five-dollar ticket for a jackpot between $100-200 mill. If it goes over $200 mill, I get a $10 ticket.

[Bushknew]

11. it's at 75 mill in Ca right now

[Dookus]

12. great

thanks for the info. I'll have to go buy some tix before saturday.

If I win, I'll give a brand new multicolored $20 bill ;)