Posted by Barry Whittington on January 18, 2001.
In Reply to: A brief history of my lottery experience posted by Ion Saliu on January 17, 2001.
I'm not speaking of the lottery being rigged in the same way as was done in Pennsylvania. It's certainly not rigged each and every week for one specific person to win. It is however rigged so that the prize money is distributed evenly in all regions. It is rigged to make sure that any one single person does not win multiples of the same prize level from the same drawing.
You may have won multiple prizes over a period of time by correctly matching 4 of 6 numbers. Have you ever won multiples of prizes by matching 4 of 6 numbers from the same drawing. That would imply that you had a level of certainty about playing those numbers. Which is something "they" will go to great pains to keep from happening.
As far as my example of demographics is concerned, you are right, that would be a conspiracy, and it is. Of course nobody will speak up about it, because nobody wants the lottery to be shut down. The average person does not care whether or not the numbers are drawn randomly. As long as they have the chance to pay a dollar every day or week for the chance of being one of the lucky people in the right place at the right time.
Let's talk about odds for a minute. Isn't it odd that every week a combination of numbers that nobody in the pool of players would ever think of picking is drawn. Why is it that a combination that many people have played is never drawn? The odds are the same that any combination could be picked, thus making the odds the same that few people would pick the winning numbers as the odds that many people would. Why is it always that few people do? Not because the odds are against it. The odds are the same.
The real odds we speak of are the odds dictated by those running the lottery. Sure we can review a history of the drawings. But I'm asserting that we're reviewing a history of drawings that are not random.
Draw six cards from a deck. Have 1 million people guess at what 6 numbers were drawn. Is it probable that only a handful of people were even close to being correct? It's just as probable that many many people were very close. Is it very probable that only 1 person in 3 million guessed the exact combination? It's just as probable that 500 people guessed the exact combination. In a random drawing there are no probabilities. Every thing and anything has exactly the same odds of happening. So how is it that each and every week, after a so called random lottery drawing, the same thing happens. Few people win anything. Why is it that many people never win something, when the odds of that happening are exactly the same?
It's been said to me by someone the the MUSL(Powerball) that they have 40 accounting firms on hand to review each and every drawing making certain there is no foul play. He also said "I know it's hard to prove the drawings are random, but they are."
Yet there is one simple easy way to ensure the drawings are random. Take the handling of the drawing out of the the hands of those running the lottery. Put it in the hands of people not associated as organizers or players of the lottery. Hire an independent firm to not just analyze and oversee, but to control the drawings. A firm that has no access to the lotteries computer information of what combinations have been played where, and how often.
Just let them turn the machine on and pick some balls. I guarantee you'll see a significant increase and just as probable decrease in the payout and distribution of prizes.
Do I just sound like a disgruntled player that is mad because I never win? Well I've picked 4 of 6 in a 6/48, 3 times in the last 7 years, and 4 of 5/36 in the last 2 months. I spend about $10 dollars a week on the lottery. I'm not mad that I don't win. I'm mad that the chances of me winning are not a matter of randomness, but a matter of controlled distribution to random people in designated areas.
Perhaps it cannot be guaranteed who exactly will have the right numbers, but it is guaranteed that it will be someone in an area that the lottery people decide.
:
: • I came to the United States in April of 1985 WEB. I read for the first time my local newspaper a few days after my arrival. I saw then in the Gettysburg Times the results of the Pennsylvania lotto 6/40. Curiously, some winning numbers had personal relevance, such as the street number and the apartment number I had left behind in Romania… Was that an omen?
: I started work on a tree nursery and orchard. One day, a Porto Rican gave me some lottery materials and tickets. He said he had a hunch I was a lottery expert! I could not drive at that time and I rode a bicycle to work. The Porto Rican would give me sometimes a ride to the food store. But first we would stop by a lottery agency and buy lotto tickets. We won the very first two tries, “ 4 out of 6”. I used the same non-computer system I used in Romania. I worked as an economist in the early 1980’s. Communist economist was really an oxymoron. I didn’t have serious work to do, or nobody took seriously an economist’s job. So, I spent time, at work, developing gambling systems. The soccer pools represented the number one job. Secondary, I analyzed the lotto games as well. My system was based on the most frequent pairs, triads and 4-number groups. Two of my colleagues, an economist and an accountant, saw the numbers I came up with. They played the numbers without even asking me to participate. They won serious money, by local standards. I was kind of Ped-off, they didn’t share a dime with me!
: In America, I saw immediately the huge potential of the mighty personal computers of those years. I started with a Sinclair (16 KB!). I moved up to an Atari 800 XL (64 KB of RAM!). Another Porto Rican joined our lotto club. He was born in 1925 and I saw him still working a couple of years ago. He is a songwriter extraordinaire. He inspired my singing in Spanish. I put my Atari to work and we won a few more times “4 out of 6”. Then, a day many others remember: February 12, 1986. My lottery programs had to be very short to fit in RAM. The programs were based on my soccer pools system. The Italian soccer resembles the lottery quite a bit. I noticed that patterns such as “X1X1” tend to repeat, while patterns like “2222” do not. My lottery programs would generate combinations of 9, or 12, or 13 numbers each. The programs would eliminate patterns as above. The computer would slowly but steadily run for days and nights. I would stop the program soon after coming back from work, about two hours before the lotto drawing. I selected the combinations at the bottom of the screen. Then I applied some of my lotto wheels. The Porto Rican who started our lotto venture had a son. And that son had nothing better to do on February 12, 1986 WEB but visit his father. So, my colleague said he did not have time to wait for me to fill out the lotto tickets for that drawing. We decided to play the previous combinations again. Had we played the new combinations, we would have hit a 3-million dollar jackpot! The very last 12-number combination started with the 6 winners! To make it short, we suffered a shock. We were even mocked by our colleagues for weeks to come.
: I realized then, however, how powerful computers were and how capable of amazing things. I took very seriously lottery programming, computer programming in general. I moved up to a PC and compiled BASIC. I won a few more times, playing on my own, or with others. Possibly I am a perfectionist, because I couldn’t stop sharpening the programs. Maybe such tendency has stood in my way of playing the lottery more consistently. I don’t think I played more than $50 a year in the past 3-4 years. I believe I am ahead some $2000 playing the lottery. But that’s only around $200 a year! I have been also busy with other forms of gambling, where my success comes easier.
: I envision the chain of success this way. The dreams must become goals. The goals must become elements in a plan. Even a perfectionist must sit down and write a plan. Goals not incorporated in a plan are just a pastime.
: My response to Barry Whittington’s concern. I believe the lottery drawings are fairly conducted. But I remember there was fraud right here, in Pennsylvania. They rigged a couple of lottery drawings. They made a movie about those events, starring John Travolta. I think the movie will start playing soon. As of the demographics Barry implies, it sounds too shocking to me. That would be conspiracy and it would surface in a short time. The lottery is still unfair, nonetheless. It is a government-protected rip-off: Huge odds, a huge house advantage, and an unchallenged monopoly.
: Ion Saliu
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