Axis of Weasels

"Automated draws are an industry trend. Thirteen other lotteries
including California, Lotto-Quebec, Kansas, Delaware, Oregon, Minnesota,
Colorado, Idaho, South Dakota, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, Nebraska and
Indiana have already converted from traditional drawing machines to
computers and random number generation for all or part of their on-line
game drawings. 

Powerball, which is currently being drawn on traditional draw machines 
from Des Moines, Iowa, is considering a conversion in the upcoming 
months. By utilizing computers, random number generation and animation, 
lotteries have reduced costs including personnel and production, while 
updating the look of the draws and preserving the integrity of the 
Lottery.  No lottery has reported a decrease in sales as a result of 
the change. *

Have a wonderful day!

Sincerely,

Linda Harvey
Customer Care Unit
Missouri Lottery"

* Naturally no lottery will report lower sales as due to their mistakes,
the loss in revenues are "inexplicable". ;-) Lotto-Logix

Arrrrrrrrgh!!!

With more state lottery games switching to faking draws in a computer
Lotto-Logix can not recommend playing such lottery games except for 
fun.  You simply can not predict winning numbers drawn in a computer
random number generator setup to insure total randomness in drawings.

All serious lottery players should let their lottery know they do not 
approve of computerized drawings and request real draws by real people 
working with real ballsets and machines.

LotteryPost now maintains a list of computerized games. (click here)

As we are quickly learning from the computer voting screens, computers
are anything but dependable and secure no matter how tightly the room
they are in is watched.  

Slot players have seen how quickly computerized slots have taken over 
the mechanical slot machines that offered players more oppertunities 
to find winning machines.

The next step in computerized draws will be the lottery deciding when 
they've taken in enough cash to have a winner.

Do yourself and all lottery players a favor and visit your state 
lottery web site and let them know you want real drawings not draws
faked by computer trickery.

State Lottery Web Site Directory

Lotto-Logix is pleased to present a second opinion . . .

Residents of Big Mo should watch for an upcoming announcement stating 
that live drawings will no longer be broadcast due to lack of player 
interest. That's how it happened in Indiana, except that Indiana 
actually downloaded their RNG from a public site on the internet.

Security for these machines is considerably less bulletproof than for 
the ball machines. In my home state, one of our official draw machines 
is actually housed at one of the Hoosier Lottery's vendors, Scientific 
Games, Inc. Oddly, they don't see this as a conflict of interest. 

Again, I'm going to point out that if something is computerized, it 
uses a PROM or an EPROM, which means that it can be programmed. In 
addition, a simple if/ then statement added to the end of the call 
command would enable an insider to predetermine the number, and even 
an audit won't reveal any wrongdoing if the perpetrator deletes the 
errant code. He can just put it back again next week, and who would 
be the wiser?

Indiana also claimed that they made the switch to an RNG to save 
money. In fact, they estimate their annual savings to be somewhere 
in the neighborhood of $600k per year. However, their annual report 
shows that they lost $100 million in revenues in the year 2000, their 
first year using the RNG. Their earnings have never recovered to 
pre-2000 levels, so how much money have they actually saved? 

The ONLY viable reason that any state would switch from the standard, 
universally-accepted ping-pong ball method to a computerized 
electronic random number generator is that the RNG makes it very simple 
to manipulate their online games. They can minimize payouts on their 
daily Pick-3, Pick-4 and Pick-5 games, thus increasing revenues. Also, 
they can increase their lotto jackpot amounts by rolling the jackpot 
over and over, thereby increasing ticket sales. 

I would suggest Missouri players check into this further and find out 
what prompted the change. If your state is deeply in debt, as Indiana 
is, you might want to find a border state in which to spend your 
lottery dollars. You might want to run to a border state, and take 
your money with you, while it's still your money. 

This is a very bad situation but, unfortunately, you'll find your 
lawmakers and public powers, for the most part, unsympathetic to 
sound arguments againt the infernal machine. Your Attorney General 
will tell you that if any wrongdoing is discovered, he'll be defending 
the criminals against your charges. Your State Representatives will 
want to cover up the criminal activity so that the people who cheated 
the population of an entire state won't go to jail or even lose their 
jobs. The FBI won't get involved because they don't want to offend 
state government agencies, on whom they depend for cooperation in 
federal investigations.

The best you can do is to find an honest newspaper reporter, such 
as Kevin Leininger of the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel, who is willing 
to work with you for as long as it takes to get enough evidence to 
make a story. Hopefully, the good people of Missouri will be more 
interested in the situation than the ignorant population of my home 
state. 

Residents of Indiana, apparently, don't care that they're being 
cheated, or perhaps they just can't read; the story appeared on 
the front page. 

I fully expected the newspaper to be flooded with letters to the 
editor following the publication of the Hoosier Lottery frauds. The 
actual number of indignant replies: 0. That's right; not one letter. 
Kevin did an excellent job writing the article, and Losing Jeff 
certainly did his part, so I can only fault my fellow Hoosiers for 
stupidly failing to respond. 

To all my friends in Missouri, you have my deepest and most 
heartfelt sympathies, as I know what you're up against. Organize. 
Gather in force. Visit havoc upon your public officials and express 
your outrage. Contact your local newspapers. Write a letter to the 
editor and ask your neighbor to write one as well. If that doesn't 
get the results you seek, write another and, this time, ask two or 
three of your neighbors to write, too. 

If it's just one or two of you trying to change things, you probably 
won't have much luck, but I don't think you'll have that problem in 
Missouri. After all, your residents know how to read a newspaper, and 
I'm sure they can also write. 

I don't suppose a few of you would consider moving to Indiana? We 
could really use the help, and it would also boost Indiana's 
collective IQ to somewhere close to that of plant life.   

Good luck, Missouri!  

_________________

I started out with nothing. Thanks to thrift and hard work, I still 
have most of it left...

Jim