Official wants fraud probe of Tennessee Lottery

Comment #28

Uncle Jim — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 03:38:45 GMT

Now get this...unless I read something wrong...the same number...940 came up in Tennessee's Daily 3 midday and evening draws today! The RNG picked 940 twice in 2 different draws, on one day in the same game!

Pffffffffffffffffffffbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbtttttttttttttttt!

That ought to get somebody's attention.

Jim

Comment #27

Rocket 455 — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 00:30:16 GMT

What if... I read that people who program computer viruses sometimes put key combinations into the code to activate it... like ctrl-shift-b-r-o or whatnot. So that whenever someone types the right key combination the virus is activated. Someone might also put an obscure key combination in to make a program work differently until another key combination is typed in to put the program back in normal mode. What if the code to put said hypothetical program back into normal mode was a keystroke off.... [ More ]

Comment #26

pegeler — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 02:33:43 GMT

How ironic. I had just sent the lotto office a Congratulatory message on their ability to gain an F for game quality. :)

Pete

Comment #25

tnlotto1 — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 00:17:39 GMT

they have a long way to go to get another A rating from Todd. dropping the RNG is the only way

Comment #24

LOTTOMIKE — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 20:13:35 GMT

this lottery went from being one of the best to one of the worst.right up there with indy now.

Comment #23

LOTTOMIKE — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 20:12:43 GMT

and 90 percent of these people who could get their money back with past tickets probably already threw the tickets away once they saw they lost.

Comment #22

rdc137 — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 19:23:00 GMT

Ripley said in a telephone interview Monday. I have seen absolutely no evidence of fraud at this point.''

Ripley's Believe It or Not? I say NOT.

Ripley, if you see no evidence of fraud, you're blinder than Mr. Magoo.

Comment #21

tnlotto1 — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 16:40:11 GMT

there are people who didnt want the lottery to come at all so they make use this as a chance to try to get rid of it but they will start off by just agreeing with us players who want the RNG gone.

Comment #20

DoubleDown — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 16:32:11 GMT

Somebody has lit the fuse..........we'll see how long before the bomb goes off.

Comment #19

Uncle Jim — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 15:45:56 GMT

This is one of the most insightful posts I have read on the matter so far! Let's look at the facts, ask some questions and see who benefits most from this:

Q. Who made the decision to switch to an RNG?

A. Rebecca Hargrove

Q. Who assured us that the drawings would be secure?

A. Rebecca Hargrove

Q. Whose office sent out the e-mails telling people the RNG had been tested and doubles were drawn?

A. Rebecca Hargrove

Q. Whose office is heading up the investigation?

A. Rebecca... [ More ]

Comment #18

MADDOG10 — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 01:38:33 GMT

She also said the glitch and the publicity about it had not hurt sales of Cash 3 and Cash 4 tickets, which were somewhat higher last week. The lottery has increased the prize money for those games.

______________________________________________________________________________

She would make one hell of a press secretary for some politicion now would'nt she...

Boy, I feel sorry for the players knowing she's patching this up to the hilt....

Comment #17

Guru101 — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 23:20:17 GMT

There's going to be a lot of p'ed off people that have thrown their losing tickets away that can't get a refund.

Comment #16

Dr Lottery — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 21:23:11 GMT

OH Rebacca Paul !! LOL back track to the Georgia Lottery the 777 and don't forget the Flordia Lottery LoL

Comment #15

four4me — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 21:13:11 GMT

So what your saying basically they sold the system and fixed it so they could buy hundreds or more tickets every day it was broke so to speak and make a 100 fold profit without anyone being the wiser. Great post.

I said something close to this in another post.

What's to stop Tenn from doing it any time they want.

Also the guy might also have a laptop which communicates with the RNG via wireless connection and he sends whatever number he wants to come out Yeeeeeeeehaaaaaaaaaaaaa! take... [ More ]

Comment #14

tnlotto1 — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 21:06:19 GMT

i agree with jarasan you should pass it on to lottomike or let them know about lotterypost.com so they could get articles from here and talk to Todd.

Comment #13

CARBOB — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 20:15:30 GMT

I am no computer programmer, but I guarantee you and everyone else, there were no tests done. If the RNG can't generate a double, then there so called test can't generate a double unless , a programmer over rode the code. If a programmer can change the code to generate a double. What's to stop that same programmer from generating a winning number and buying a 100 tickets, or a friend from buying a hundred tickets. They need to back track and see if a big group of winning tickets were purchased a... [ More ]

Comment #12

jarasan — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 20:13:08 GMT

If so, you should make time, or refer them to Todd. IMHO. Really, or lottomike, it is a great opportunity.

Comment #11

RJOh — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 20:04:03 GMT

James H. Ripley, a Sevierville attorney who heads the 3-year-old lottery's audit group, said the agency should probe more deeply

I thought auditing a lottery was an ongoing operation which was independent of the people running the games that checked equipment before each drawing and approved changes before they were installed to insure the results would be fair and random. From Mr.Ripley statement I get the impression an audit doesn't occur until after a mistake is obvious and then the chec... [ More ]

Comment #10

Stack47 — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 19:56:19 GMT

I believe that statement was made to take the attention from who would benefit the most by having a rigged drawing.

When Hargrove announced the Tennessee Lottery was going to computer drawings she sited to maximize dollars for education as one of the reasons. When players began pointing out a possible problem with the new computer drawings because no doubles were drawn, they were told that security had looked into it to insure integrity of its games to maximize dollars for education .

E... [ More ]

Comment #9

LOTTOMIKE — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 19:35:49 GMT

i noticed that too!

watch for quads soon

Comment #8

nobie23 — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 18:12:38 GMT

since this glitch thing started and corrected(not) Tn has been getting double digit numbers just about everyday(since Aug 20th). seems to me somebody else has her hand in the cookie jar

Comment #7

psykomo — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 17:58:59 GMT

KyMystikal??????????????????????????????????????????????????

do I understand that U were ask bi a newspaper to write a lil ole

editorial YO <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<DON't have TIME......????

PLEASE @ least do us the honor of the SUBJECT!!!

Hell^^^^^PSYKOMO will write a HIT SONG about the lottery if we

we were ask by a state newspaper^^^^^!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Tennessean>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

(meanwhile)............. HAIL to Todd, HAIL Todd^^^^^^^^

hope U... [ More ]

Comment #6

jim695 — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 17:17:20 GMT

from the article:

A lottery depends on its integrity, and so, you always want to rule that out,'' Ripley said in a telephone interview Monday. I have seen absolutely no evidence of fraud at this point.''

_________________________________________

Isn't that the problem? Isn't that our POINT???

When mechanical drawings are compromised, everyone can see it; when computer drawings are purposely sabotaged, no one can see it except a programmer who scrutinizes the code line by l... [ More ]

Comment #5

KyMystikal — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 16:42:20 GMT

The Tennessean contacted me about doing a editorial about the Lottery mess but I don't think I will do it because I don't have time.

Comment #4

Todd — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 15:47:34 GMT

The story has been updated. I have added three internal documents showing the complaint, actions, and summary.

Comment #3

duckman — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 15:14:13 GMT

I doubt it was an intentional error or fraud. Most likely it was the result of a software person making a change (or setting an parameter incorrectly) and then making the MAJOR MISTAKE of not TESTING the system after the change.

A SIMPLE software test would have caught this problem. By running a trial statistical sample and looking at the results, it would have been obvious that something was wrong when number combinations had 0.00% hits.

Either way, fraud or an unintentional mistake, this... [ More ]

Comment #2

Todd — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 14:32:52 GMT

That's a GREAT POINT!

Why would she even entertain the idea of rigging the drawings is computerized drawings were so secure ?

I would say if someone WAS rigging the drawing that they succeeded nicely.

I wonder if that person would made the keypunch error played any Pick 3 or Pick 4 numbers during that stretch -- or maybe someone they know did

Comment #1

jarasan — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 13:59:30 GMT

Hargrove said she did not believe fraud was involved. She said a player would have had to spend $720 to win $500 in the Cash 3 game and $5,040 to win $5,000 in Cash 4, making it unlikely anyone would purposely rig the games.

This statement is about one of the biggest red herrings I have ever read. WOW.

Could you please elaborate and explain, how this has anything to do with rigging draws

Official wants fraud probe of Tennessee Lottery

Lottery Post — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 13:44:54 GMT

UPDATED (Aug. 28, 2007, 11:44 am) Internal documents added

The Tennessee Lottery should investigate whether fraud was behind a computer malfunction that affected the results for Cash 3 and Cash 4 games, the lottery board's audit chairman says.

James H. Ripley, a Sevierville attorney who heads the 3-year-old lottery's audit group, said the agency should probe more deeply into why a computer software problem prevented duplicate numbers from being drawn for a three-week period.

A lotter... [ More ]