Pennsylvania Lottery declares 'foul' during Nov. 7 Cash 5 drawing

Comment #6

LckyLary — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 06:06:11 GMT

At least in a ball drawing you can see visually what went wrong. In a computerized draw the only way would be to see the program code. I suggest the Lotteries are forced to make this code public!

I remember one or two times in nj they were drawing the Cash 5 and the machine got stuck after the 3rd ball, so the hostess reached into the machine while looking the opposite way, and grabbed out the last few! I may even have a screen copy showing this.

Comment #5

JimmySand9 — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 02:34:58 GMT

Absolutely right.

They were able to detect the error because there was transparency. They would have never detected any flaw had it been an RNG, they would have assumed everything was on the up and up, even when it wasn't. What they call the security that comes with RNG, is really just blissful ignorance.

Comment #4

Todd — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 18:40:08 GMT

Um, that's not true. Problems with RNGs go undetected in many cases for months, and completely foul months of drawings at a time. There are many documented cases right here in these News pages.

In this case, the system worked perfectly: A slight mechanical error that happened AFTER the ball was selected from the drum was duly noted by the lottery, and all because it is a mechanical drawing, and not bits and bytes inside a computer, a human being could easily see the drawing took place, and wh... [ More ]

Comment #3

Stack47 — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 18:04:50 GMT

After careful review of the drawing tape by Lottery officials, the volunteer senior witness and a Certified Public Accountant, along with TV studio personnel, it was determined that the official winning Cash 5 numbers for the Friday, Nov. 7, drawing are 02-11-13-34-37.

The only real harm to the viewers was they didn't get to see the rest of balls dropping. If anything these occasional malfunctions should prove to the players the drawings are live and random.

Comment #2

Dead_Aim — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 15:11:22 GMT

That may be the case but I doubt it and if a ball machine does make a foul it is noticeable and may only happen once in a while as opposed to the RNG systems which can screw the players for up to a month before the problem will be recognized. And that is a proven fact.

Comment #1

rwsmes — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 02:20:31 GMT

Damn those ping pong balls, there have been more fouls with them than with RNG systems.

Pennsylvania Lottery declares 'foul' during Nov. 7 Cash 5 drawing

Lottery Post — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 23:24:47 GMT

Pennsylvania Lottery officials declared a foul during the Friday, Nov. 7, Cash 5 drawing after the machine failed to drop the first numbered ball, 34, into the viewing chamber in a reasonable amount of time.

After the drawing official moved on to successfully complete the MATCH 6 lotto drawing, the Cash 5 machine resumed drawing the remaining four numbers 11, 13, 37 and 02.

After careful review of the drawing tape by Lottery officials, the volunteer senior witness and a Certified Public Ac... [ More ]