By Jason Clayworth
America's popular and lucrative lottery drawings, in which computers randomly select numbers that turn a lucky few into instant millionaires, may not be as random as they seem.
In dozens of the games across the United States, identical winning numbers have been generated within weeks or months of each other — sometimes in consecutive drawings, a Des Moines Register investigation shows.
Lottery officials, even some who have previously acknowledged concern with the national lottery system, contend the repeated numbers are nothing more than chance.
"While such repeats are rare and uncommon, there is no reason to suspect these numbers were not drawn reasonably," said Patricia Mayers, a spokeswoman for the Wisconsin Lottery, which had several duplicate draws over more than a decade.
But critics of random-number drawings contend that the identical draws, coupled with records identifying problems in several states with "random number" computer generators, demonstrate that the fairness and integrity of the nation's $80.5 billion annual lottery system are compromised.
The problems are aggravated by the lack of national oversight, those critics contend.
"Lottery directors and state legislators are running these rigged games with blinders on," said Les Bernal, director of Stop Predatory Gambling, based in Washington, D.C. "They're shielding their eyes from the dishonesty of these games."
Math experts who have researched lottery drawings told the Register it's difficult to truly know whether the identical draws indicate a serious problem without an in-depth inspection of the lottery software, but they say the draws deserve a closer look.
"It suggests that there are outliers, and it suggests it's worthy of investigation," said math professor David Austin, of Grand Valley State University in Michigan. Austin has researched and written about the difficulties associated with creating number generators.
Already, several states, including Iowa, Arizona, Connecticut and South Carolina, have identified problems with random number-generated lotteries, and some have ended games because of the problems.
Professors review drawings, and find outliers
Using data of winning drawings in 37 states collected by the website Lottery Post (www.lotterypost.com), the Register identified more than 100 drawings over the past 25 years where the same game generated identical winning numbers within 365 days of each other.
(The Register reviewed only those lottery games that select at least five numbers, because those games generally have a smaller probability of having the same numbers drawn twice.)
In six instances, the same winning numbers were generated in consecutive drawings in the same game in Arizona, Rhode Island and Colorado, the Register found.
Austin, the Grand Valley State math professor, reviewed some of the same-number draws the Register identified as possible anomalies in Wisconsin and West Virginia.
Austin — who ran more than 10,000 simulations as part of his review — determined that although the duplicate drawings in West Virginia seemed consistent with statistical odds, several examples in Wisconsin appeared to be outliers "worthy of investigation."
"Convention would say that the Wisconsin Lottery results are statistically significant and even close to being highly significant," Austin said.
Robert Molzon, a retired math professor at the University of Kentucky, concurred.
It's impossible to directly test whether lottery computer-generated numbers are truly random without gaining access to the systems, Molzon said.
However, it is simple to compute probabilities that a given number of "doubles" (identical numbers) will appear over a fixed time period as a way to assess whether a problem may exist, he said.
Like Austin, Molzon — in reviewing sets of winning strings of lottery numbers called multiple times in Wisconsin and West Virginia over a multiyear period — concluded that outliers exist in some of the Wisconsin drawings identified in the Register's investigation.
"My conclusion is that it is highly unlikely that the chosen numbers in either of these lotteries are truly random," Molzon said.
A scammer spots the problem
The Register launched an eight-month investigation into lottery draws with identical numbers after the conviction and sentencing last year of Eddie Tipton, a former Multi-State Lottery Association security worker in Urbandale who admitted masterminding the largest lottery fraud in U.S. history.
Tipton — in a confession following his 2017 lottery fraud conviction — told investigators that in 2006 he had warned his employer that computer software he had written to randomly draw numbers had an alarming flaw: The draws weren't truly random.
He was tipped off to the problem after two Wisconsin SuperCash! games drew the same six numbers twice within 10 days in 2006.
The odds of that happening: 1 in 326,262 — akin to flipping a coin and having it come up heads 18 times in a row — Wisconsin Lottery mathematician JonMichael Rasmus told the Associated Press in 2006.
Multi-State Lottery is an umbrella gaming organization that is owned and operated by 36 member lotteries, including the Iowa Lottery. Many of its members use its random number-generating software.
Neither the Multi-State Lottery nor the Wisconsin Lottery notified the public of the reported flaw, and they say they have no reports showing investigations were conducted into the matter.
The Multi-State Lottery chose not to order a rebuild of the random-number-generating software that ultimately was used in at least 17 states, according to transcripts of Tipton's confession to prosecutors that the Register obtained last year.
"It just kept growing and growing," Tipton said, according to court transcripts. "It became spaghetti codes, unfortunately."
Iowa ends several lotteries over problems
Steve Bogle, Iowa Lottery's vice president in 2015, recommended the state suspend four popular games, including Hot Lotto, because of serious flaws with the software that randomly generated the winning numbers, according to records a Polk County District Court judge released following the Register's request.
As a result, the Iowa Lottery no longer uses Multi-State Lottery computer software to draw game numbers.
The Multi-State Lottery Association is the subject of multiple lawsuits from players who contend they were bilked out of winnings by Tipton's scam.
The repeated numbers and decision to discontinue the use of Multi-State Lottery random number-generated software indicates the nation's lottery system has little oversight, said Gary Dickey, a Des Moines attorney for one of the players.
"You have to ask, 'Who does MUSL answer to?'" Dickey said. "It's not regulated by a federal agency or any single state. It just sort of exists in a patchwork of state laws."
Lottery officials say they were unaware of warning
The random-number glitch in the software Tipton said he warned Multi-State Lottery officials about in 2006 is separate from the code he inserted into the system that allowed him to predict numbers and scam multiple state lotteries.
Multi-State Lottery and Wisconsin officials indicated in response to Register questions that they did not know that Tipton allegedly warned their staff about a random-number problem.
Multi-State Lottery Association Director Bret Toyne said — other than in Arizona — his organization has not identified or been notified "of an instance when a similar hardware failure occurred, including the 2006 Wisconsin game."
And the Wisconsin Lottery said it has no documentation or institutional knowledge of Tipton's warnings.
"Nor does his allegation make much sense," said Mayers, the Wisconsin Lottery spokeswoman. "There is no reason why he would have been monitoring the numbers drawn in Wisconsin in the manner he suggests."
In Wisconsin, the Register identified 10 sets of numbers that were called twice within five years of each other in the state's SuperCash! game, including the two 2006 draws that Tipton said he had warned his bosses about.
Wisconsin began using the Multi-State Lottery's random-number generators in 2004 but stopped in 2016 because of concerns involving Tipton. (Wisconsin now uses a different random-number system that costs the agency $125,000 a year, versus the $15,000 it had previously paid for the Multi-State Lottery's services.)
Five of the 10 duplicate sets of numbers the Register identified were drawn before or after the Multi-State Lottery random-number system was used in Wisconsin.
"While such repeats are rare and uncommon, there is no reason to suspect these numbers were not drawn reasonably," Mayers said.
State lotteries identify internal problems
At least three state lotteries have acknowledged random-draw malfunctions, assuring the public that steps were taken that fixed the problems.
- Arizona officials in 2017 identified more than a dozen draws linked to four separate lottery games where they suspected computer software had malfunctioned and called duplicate strings of numbers, including in consecutive draws.
- Connecticut suspended two employees in March 2018 following revelations that a machine used to randomly select winners for a high-profile game had been erroneously programmed.
- South Carolina officials in May declined to pay more than $35 million in wins after it was discovered that a game played on Christmas day had printed thousands of winning tickets because of a computer error.
As with any technology, including ball machines, the opportunity exists for hardware to fail, said David Nunn, a spokesman for the Arizona Lottery.
The agency used an independent third-party firm and a statistics expert to evaluate draw history after the duplicate draws.
The Multi-State Lottery Association — Tipton's former employer and the agency that provided Arizona with the software — also conducted an investigation. An executive summary of that investigation showed the software had been installed in July 2015, which was about six months after Tipton's arrest.
A Multi-State Lottery employee flew to Arizona and replaced an internal counter and concluded the machines were repaired.
Arizona Lottery generated $816,231 in revenue on the four games during the affected time frames and issued $106,017 in refunds to players — in addition to paying winning tickets.
"Arizona Lottery has the responsibility to minimize that risk, protect the integrity of our operations and be transparent to the public when a failure occurs," Nunn said. "It is our obligation to be able to earn the public's trust, and it is our objective to operate that way in all aspects of the products that we provide to the public."
Dan Zitting an executive of ACL, a software company based in Vancouver, Canada, said state lotteries should follow Arizona's lead when duplicate numbers are drawn and independently investigate whether problems exist.
Zitting, whose company has worked with more than 900 state and federal government agencies, said he believes computer-generated drawings generally are fair and efficient.
But he also believes national standards are necessary to set how computer-generated drawings are used and tested throughout dozens of state lotteries.
"A whole lot is premised on the integrity of the lotteries," Zitting said. "Even if this isn't crisis mode yet, I would really be on top of this before it hits that state."
How this story was reported
For its analysis, the Register compared lottery drawings with five numbers or more. It identified hundreds of instances between 1992 and 2017 where identical numbers were generated in the same game within five years of each other, using winning data from 37 states collected by the website Lottery Post.
A more narrowly defined review of identical numbers drawn within 365 days of each other identified more than 100 duplicate drawings, confirmed by other online sites that collect winning numbers.
To help assess whether those duplicate drawings could be the result of chance, the Register asked two math professors to review some of its findings.
The statistical probability of lottery drawings producing the same winning numbers rises as the number of drawings increases, meaning that a short window of time with fewer drawings is less likely to produce duplicate drawings than a longer window of time with more drawings. The Register's review reflects this principle.
Maybe the Lotteries are getting their numbers from the same place that Fortune Cookie Makers get theirs!
When lottery players are loosing it's all good with the lottery.When players start getting a few wins,the lottery blame the computers ,the ball just not to pay.
just my 2 cents
Computer picks or ball drops all the same at the end of the day...the main database that collects all the picks for that current draw determines what numbers should fall. Veteran players in computerized and BALL drop states can predict due pairs, due sums and call out a few numbers for a draw with great success much more success then if it was truly random. My opinion is that the Lottery doesn't become and stay a Billion dollar industry without certainty. My remarks aren't about jackpot games as I don't play them, but for games such as pick3/pick4. Back in late 90 's early 2000's it wasn't hard at all to profit 50k a year playing those games and the reason why is bc is was much easier to predict, but none the less if you knew what you were doing you could predict.
Go figure a post draw ,....who would a thunk.lol
For one: l am glad that Tipton's influence did not reach the West Coast.
Two: With all the talk about " identical numbers"- how is it that it does not translate into multiple jackpot winners? With so many folks purchasing QP's doesn't common sense dictate, that we should be having more than just the occasional one or two jackpot winners? Can one assume that these non random numbers are " safe?"
Just a thought, until proven otherwise.
NG, Eddie's influence did reach the West Coast, he was security director for MUSL. As to whether or not he "rigged" the state RNG is what is up for debate. Eddie loaded a wrong game for AZ that was supposed to be a pick 3. That was after all testing was completed and the production game was different.
Seems a billion dollar Mega Millions lottery jackpot has caught the attention of many newsroom editors looking for human interest stories.
The recent lottery winner story carried by CBS 60Minutes failed to mention that the wins being dramatized were about 10 years old, not something recent.
I don't think there are many everyday lottery players that have a couple hundred thousand dollars lying around for lottery tickets.
Face it - if you have the means and resources to buy every possible combination, how can you not win?
We can believe that the lottery draw machine and software engineers aren't likely to make the same mistakes.
There are thousands of random number generators in use in every state where lottery draw tickets are sold.
You don't have to be a 'rocket scientist' to believe that there would be a lot of duplication.
Those machines don't have a memory, so, it's possible that one of them will generate the same combination on two tickets.
But, so what.
Besides, comparing draw results and coming up with a way to 'know' what the next combination will be is not something that is being done often enough to have any practical effect.
There's always going to be another drawing!!
Really? they are??. And the cow jumped over the Moon. nothing more than chance, phfffft.
Did you watch the 60 minutes episode? The couple started a syndicate and collected money from friends and family. And they realized their chances increased when the jackpot rolled down and increased the next level prizes.They started with smaller wins and made a profit and then used that money as well for the next roll down.
Sailmumm- When l posted " no influence on the WC" l was taking into account: Washington State & Oregon. Both of those along with CA " do not seem" to be affected, thus far. Eddie's gambit seems to have stopped in Arizona.Tipton had been pretty active on the East Coast & neighboring States where he ran amok. As always, just saying.
Come to think of it : Nevada was the West Coast's " Steel Curtain" against Eddie's shenanigans.
Anyone notice that IOWA and INDIANA share the same numbers?
.
Yes, and I love Chineese Food.
There's a dish at a local restaurant. . . . but there I go again, I digest.
(digress you moron, not digest, digress)
Maybe those two states have the same computer software. Sometimes computers work alike.
I agree and I will also add that they have money numbers which fall when they need to pay out other bills. NC residents believe its rigged pick 4 especially since we've had an unusually low amount of quads since 2006 compared to other states. Quads here are blocked yet in 2011 we got 4 out of the 8 that has fallen ......I do think the new director Mark is trying but he should step up before we lose interest in our states lottery altogether. Rigged yes... to their advantage of course you just have to outsmart the fox . As long as the lottery is around someone like myself will think its rigged
impossible if random
just like casinos and online gambling the lotteries are built for us to lose yet as much as we know this is the case we go back and play against the odds over and over again for that hope of the big win (which happens every now and then) so we come back for more ...
as long as there are people willing to bet there will be games to play no matter what ! even though we know the odds are stacked against us its an addiction, and we come back over and over and over again ... at the same time its promoted all over the US and the world ...
as soon as I started winning my sports bets on a certain site I was banned from that sport ... this has all been built for us to fail so I don't feel bad for anyone who is in this pit including myself ...
If anyone believes this bologna
Play - ( 9335 , 5993 , 359 ) For the next few days
Win big - You'll win from pick 3 and 4 - Before all other games
This was several years ago (4 or 5 ) , but I would play the Ohio lottery Classic game. About every 20 draws or so the lowest number would be in the 20's. This worked for awhile then it would go a half a year with very few numbers starting in the low 20 s and it is that way to this day. It seemed fishy. If the lottery could control the ball draws then they could have a computer program set up that would monitor the numbers picked and then choose a number that pays out the least. The Ohio pick 3,4, and 5 seem legit. Would the payouts be worth monitoring from state to state ?
You said that right! I mean God forbid we win most of the money WE are spending...and everybody should know if they don't that it is no such thing as a random number...period!
I have followed the winning state and national drawings on Lottery post for at least the past 5 years (paneagle solarstarlottery forum)
I predict accurately here using the unique SOLARIS STARS LOTTERY and Solar Universal (Something like Astrology but using actual degree positions, not psychological references). I have found a significant predicting using Einstein Relativity formula and its association reference mode for SOLARIS STARS.
I have noticed these three things 1) Significant duplication in drawings on same date in multiple drawings, same state and multiple states
2) There has been a clear tendency towards lower (closer to 1) or single digit numbers and also the number 1 in particular
3) Most disturbing is the STRONG tendency to make the drawings harder to win, and costing more to play ($2 dollars a ticket plus ADD $1 for bonus play)
The duplication may not be due to unnatural or mistaken drawings but rather to natural solar "forces" and "relativity" which does engender lottery results. But the Collusion of the Lottery in programming or otherwise is still a very real and I feel certainly beyond the realm of random or objective accidentals.
The recent 2018 South Carolina winner of half a Billion major lottery has not come forward (and suggests he or she may not have actually existed). Add the fact jackpots odds as high as 1 in 300 Million is absolutely astounding, a ridiculous prize for even 10 people, much less 1 solitary winner.
and now the Florida Lottery has just ended the LUCKY MONEY with a 1.8 Million jackpot unpaid and not won There is no word of what to do with the Jackpot?
To run drawings without payout or actual distribution of Jackpot money must be considered as strong need for Oversight problems and possible CRIMINAL Law enforcement.
THE ETHICS is clearly at stake and Florida is well advised to CREATE OVERSITE TESTING immediately.
GM partlycloudy07
I agree in what you say regarding the lottery and its all states
It is sad for us players and one day I would like to see an all state boycott. that will get there attention
God Bless You and God Bless America...
Its a control ball thing Random not so !!! I hate cheaters.
Ive been on to Tn lottery for years! The number 378 got me to watching them it hit on 08/07/2017 then08/17/2017/ and again that month on the 08/27/2017. There is no way in hell that should happen. Mr tipton took the fall for a much larger group than anyone could forsee! And in Tn its funny that its just the cash 3 that is so bad. But i figure they got smart anything under 600 you dont have to claim at the lotto office and no taxes. Hence they will never get caught unless the fbi goes in and takes the rng machines and find the programs they have installed in them to be able type in the winning numbers! This is real folks and until we the ppl make a stand it will keep on!
Consider the matrices on all games.
There's only a finite quantity of numbers to deal with.
There is no random in computer generators number. If you review the last two years draws in any game ,you will notice a pattern and can almost predate the number of the next base on the result of the last. Why do lottery numbers increase after couple of years ? Pattern is getting very visible.
If the RNG is producing the same numbers, then why aren't people buying tickets with those numbers and profiting big time?
While they may not be here on LP bragging about it, we would be able to see that in the state's annual reports. But the fact of the matter is that every state lottery makes buckets of money, so either the RNG is randomly generating the same numbers every once in a blue moon (that's what the term OUTLIER means, something unusual that is not predictable), or the software does have a bug but no one is making use of it.
This is all about nothing. Slow news day?
"Convention would say that the Wisconsin Lottery results are statistically significant and even close to being highly significant," "two Wisconsin SuperCash! games drew the same six numbers twice within 10 days in 2006. The odds of that happening: 1 in 326,262"
Does anyone know how often the drawings were back then and what the odds were? When mathematicians tell reporters what the odds of a particular lottery event are, the numbers they offer are frequently wrong. Claiming that the chances of drawing the same pick 3 number in consecutive drawings is 1 in 1 million is a common example. The odds given for Wisconsin SuperCash might be right if there were 2,3 or 4 drawings per week with better odds than the current game, but only for a specific 10 day period. Since there were an awful lot of 10 day periods in 2006 (not to mention all the other years) the chance of having the same numbers drawn twice within 10 days is much better than 1 in 326,262. Unless the game's odds were quite a bit better 5 or more drawings per week mean the chances of it happening even in one specific 10 day period are higher than what's reported.
Everybody agrees that RNG's aren't perfectly random, but having numbers repeat more often than is likely doesn't mean the results aren't very close to what we'd see with a perfect RNG. If a bunch of extremely unlikely events happen it could be because they're not random events, but random events can produce extremely unlikely results. Even in a game with odds of 1 in 1.6 million (the current odds for Wisconsin SuperCash) the odds of drawing any two sets of numbers in consecutive drawings is 1 in 2.56 trillion, but nobody questions the results when the numbers don't look special to them.
This review looked at 25 years worth of games from 37 states. Figuring most lotteries are twice a week (and ignoring any states that have 2 or more games that were included) that's 2 x 52 x 25 x 37, or a bit over 96,000 drawings. Looking for the same numbers twice in a 5 year period would mean twice in 520 drawings. That's the same as any other combination of picking 2 from a set of 520, so there are 134,940 2 drawing combinations in any 5 year period. In 25 years there are 21 5 year periods. That all adds up to an awful lot of chances for drawing a set of numbers that was drawn in another drawing within a 5 year period, especially when some of the games have fairly low odds. And that's just for one state, but they had 37 states in which to find what's supposedly an unlikely event.
In the case of Wisconsin SuperCash the odds are currently 1 in 1,631,312. That would mean 134,940 possible 2 drawing combinations represent nearly 10% of the possible combinations in the game. Factor in 21 chances at the almost 1 in 10 chance of duplicates and it shouldn't seem very unlikely. But Wisconsin SuperCash isn't drawn just twice a week, at least not right now. It's drawn every day. That's 365 times in a year and 1825 times in a 5 year period. That means there are 1,664,400 ways for one drawing to match another drawing.
Maybe the data really does suggest a fair chance that the results aren't random. There's also a chance that the mathematicians looking at the data made a mistake in the analysis.
FWIW, anyone not familiar with the birthday paradox might want to take a quick look. It's counterintuitive for most people but you only need 23 people to have a 50% chance that two of them will share the same birthday. With 75 people the chance is 99.9%, even though almost 80% of the possible birthdays aren't represented. https://betterexplained.com/articles/understanding-the-birthday-paradox/
I posted this yesterday and tonight TN brought tge 378 exactly like this! Someone is watching! Or could it be that i called the musl, tn lotto, and SGC this week and told them this was the number that made me start watching them and the rigging thats going on!
But did you play it? I think they just told you "we do what we want." Lol