The vision that comes to mind when most people think of the lottery is that of crossing out numbers on a sheet of paper and watching a load of numbered balls tumble around inside a cage.
Nowadays, many lottery enthusiasts chose Quick Pick options to select their numbers, and online lotteries, such as Lottox5, which uses a random number generator to choose the winning numbers, have become increasingly popular. One would assume that there is an equal chance for any number to ‘come up’ but are numbers really random?

Lottery odds v the draw process

Whilst the odds of a lottery always remain the same, which is down to mathematics, there could possibly be a scope for some manipulation of how the balls themselves are drawn. As was the case of the 1980 Pennsylvania lottery “Triple Six Fix”.

Latex paint had been injected into the lottery balls to make them heavier and sink to the bottom, except for the fours and sixes. The draw took place live on tv and the winning number ominously turned out to be the number of the beast, 666.

It was later revealed that a lottery official had conspired, along with a studio technician and a TV host, to rig the game. The conspirators were arrested for a theft of $1.2 million.
Fortunately, modern lotteries use sophisticated systems to measure, weight and X-ray the balls, along with there being multiple witnesses to verify the whole process.

Furthermore, by studying the results and statistics from previous draws, we are able to assess the frequency of similar numbers occurring.

Nevertheless, when it comes to ‘Quick Pics’, things become more complex.
How reliable are random number generators?                                                       

When it comes down to it, computers are ultimately devices which are programmed by humans, creating a paradox, which in computing terms, is referred to as a ‘pseudo random’ number.

Director of the Iowa State University Information Assurance Centre, Doug Jacobson, declares: ‘The funny thing about the random number generator is, on a computer, it’s not really random.’

The first number which is generated by the computer is the seed number.

At the exact moment when a request for a lottery ticket is made, the seed number is triggered, based off information such as the computer’s real time clock, with random numbers following.

‘You try to get as random number as possible for the seed’, says Jacobson. Adding, ‘if I know the seed, I know the answer to the random number generator.’

Someone who knew the seed was Eddie Tipton, a former Iowa Lottery official who was the Information Security Director for the Multi-State Lottery Association, which runs the biggest US lotteries such as Powerball and Mega Millions. Tipton had access to the random number generator which he manipulated by installing code to predict the winning numbers, he then used malware in an attempt to cover his tracks.

In 2015, Tipton was convicted of rigging the Hot Lotto draw of $14.3 million and sentenced to 25 years. He was also alleged to have rigged draws in Colorado, Wisconsin and Oklahoma.

Improved security

Following his arrest, the Iowa lottery CEO, Terry Rich, said the agency would work on security; “we will continue to make sure that games are fair in every way, shape or form and investigate any lead that we may have that it’s not,” affirmed Rich.

The Tipton case was a real wake-up call for the lottery industry and lottery organisers are taking increasing steps towards ensuring the integrity of the game, keeping computers under 24hr surveillance, and not connecting regional computers to the central systems.

According to Jacobson, part of the problem with the Tipton case was down to human error; ‘most organizations that deal with large sums of money always have two people to look at each other…they only had one person. To me, the process would be: two people update the computer. It’s harder to have multiple people in collusion.’

‘This was as much of a process failure as it was a computer security failure,’ he added. ‘If a malicious person has physical access to a computer, can touch it, hold it, it’s pretty much game over.”

Despite these isolated cases, playing the lottery is generally safe from fraud.

If we analyse the frequencies of the generated numbers, either by purchasing massive amounts of ‘Quick Picks’ or from collecting ticket information from many players, the randomness of these machines can be tested.

Lottery statistics are readily available for most lotteries, enabling anyone to do their research. If there seems to be patterns in the results, this could be a cause for concern.

Online lottery with Lottoland

Online lottery operator Lottoland, uses an innovative prize insurance model for its scratch cards, casino and instant win games called a ‘Random & insured Number Generator (RiNG™).

RiNG™ technology is based on combination technologies including a hardware RNG ‘Quantis Appliance’ to deliver true quantum randomness, with two instances installed for redundancy and failover and the technology runs in a multi-layer secured and protected environment with a trusted time-stamping mechanism to guarantee tamper-proof results.

Prizes won with Lottoland are underwritten by the company’s prize insurance, at the centre of which its Insurance Linked Security (ILS) stands.

In 2018, Lottoland gained a Guinness World Record for the largest online gambling payout, a cool €90 million jackpot which was won on a Eurojackpot bet.

Lottox5 by Lottoland offers UK punters five chances win £1 million for £1.
For only £1, you are entered into 5 draws of £1 million, with draws taking place three times a week from 20:15 h on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays.
Lottoland is regulated by the UK Gambling Commission.