Minnesota Lottery confirms technical communications error delayed $2 billion Powerball drawing

Comment #43

txwinr — Thu, 24 Nov 2022 17:26:45 GMT

I dunno, the whole thing made me suspicious and me and my friends feel it's rigged. Don't think we'll be playing it as much.

Comment #42

poolshooter4 — Tue, 15 Nov 2022 04:13:34 GMT

you can say anything after the fact are we still supposed to believe that a weather balloon crashed in Roswell in '47? *asking for a friend

Comment #41

justadream — Mon, 14 Nov 2022 18:24:29 GMT

Me three...haven't played any lotto since then , not even scratch offs .

Comment #40

Bleudog101 — Mon, 14 Nov 2022 14:37:31 GMT

Me too. Don't know about others, but when the big one is finally one feel like a balloon has been deflated.

Don't know when I'll play again, something new to me.

Comment #39

pstfleur — Mon, 14 Nov 2022 02:07:50 GMT

Going to take a break from powerball. That was just sloppy.

Comment #38

GiveFive — Mon, 14 Nov 2022 00:15:49 GMT

Thanks for the info Todd. It's been 13 years since I last worked in a datacenter and I'm sure things have changed dramatically.

Most the network gear installed on the raised floor in my old datacenter was Cisco Systems equipment. I can recall IBM's Network Architects saying things like We can always use more routers and switches, but that Cisco Sales Rep needs to sharpen his pencil for that to happen. At that time I think Cisco was in a position to price their machines however they wanted.... [ More ]

Comment #37

Bleudog101 — Sun, 13 Nov 2022 15:44:37 GMT

Thanks for the update.

Stuff happens when old, outdated technology is used. We had IBM cards with chads from the 1970's in High school. I think the class was called Automated Data Processing but not 100% sure. It was fun.

Comment #36

CDanaT — Sun, 13 Nov 2022 15:18:19 GMT

Hope this helps

https://www.lotterypost.com/thread/340427

From several weeks ago ,completed with a simple LP search...It appears there are multiple peeps .

Florida Chad issue from 20+ years ago:

The Palm Beach County supervisor of elections, Theresa LePore, a Democrat at the time, approved the infamous and confusing butterfly ballot, blamed for many Gore votes mistakenly being cast for conservative independent candidate Pat Buchanan. The year after the recount she changed her p... [ More ]

Comment #35

Raven62 — Sun, 13 Nov 2022 14:55:30 GMT

In other words: Defecation Happens

Comment #34

Raven62 — Sun, 13 Nov 2022 14:52:16 GMT

If they were using Checkpoint Software they could have done a Checkpoint Restart which allows an application that crashes or fails for any reason to continue from the Last Checkpoint without data loss when it is restarted.

Comment #33

Todd — Sun, 13 Nov 2022 14:32:21 GMT

I would agree that redundant communications are needed, but disagree as to cost. It is actually cheap these days to have redundant architecture. There are ways to (relatively) cheaply build redundancy into every single part of an architecture. The state lotteries are largely reliant upon a few large lottery vendors to do all the work for them; the in-house IT staffs are not the lotteries' strength. So if the vendors are not good at it, then the lotteries will not be either.

Comment #32

GiveFive — Sun, 13 Nov 2022 13:57:09 GMT

A better process (a bullet proof network) can be designed. It's a network so full of redundant equipment that when one box in the network fails, it's automatically failed over (switched over) to it's back up box. (Which costs a lot of $$ for it to sit there doing nothing while waiting for the primary box to fail)

A network like that is so expensive that the cost of it makes it prohibitive to all but the Federal Government. For instance the fleet of Space Shuttles were chock full of redundant... [ More ]

Comment #31

GiveFive — Sun, 13 Nov 2022 13:41:03 GMT

A telecommunications error more than likely means that a piece of networking hardware failed and went down.

The lottery terminal at your local lottery retailer is just one piece of many pieces of communications hardware that's connected in a chain of other network communications hardware in between the lottery terminal and a datcenter where a mainframe or a powerful server resides . It's the mainframe/server that actually processes the data sent back and forth over the network. If any one de... [ More ]

Comment #30

Bleudog101 — Sun, 13 Nov 2022 12:50:00 GMT

Funny several weeks ago not one peep that I remember when the Powerball drawing machine broke down in beginning of the drawing which delayed it for one hour. What can you expect from a state that can't count votes (chads)--Floriduh.

Comment #29

Todd — Sun, 13 Nov 2022 11:36:17 GMT

No argument from me. That was horrendous.

Comment #28

KY Floyd — Sun, 13 Nov 2022 05:14:48 GMT

It wasn't just the amount of data. ... they needed to start the entire process from the beginning.

So basically it was the amount of data.

an overwhelming amount of sales data doesn't explain a thing

Of course it does. The amount of data and the speed at which they can process the data determine how long it takes, and selling more tickets and not having a problem has nothing to do with what happens when there is a problem. For this run MN sales ranged from a low of $178 thousand to... [ More ]

Comment #27

noise-gate — Sun, 13 Nov 2022 05:08:46 GMT

.. am l being reasonable? l think so, all l want to know is who are these folks that see fit to downgrade a legitimate post of mine. These guys are suggesting that the winner of the PB Jackpot from CA* was given an advantage by the delay, and all l am asking is How? Get back in here and explain themselves. Is that to much to ask? l think not

Comment #26

Stack47 — Sun, 13 Nov 2022 03:21:56 GMT

Wow, your post was rated lower than the new kid on the block with the weird ID .

Comment #25

Stack47 — Sun, 13 Nov 2022 03:15:02 GMT

I'll leave the drawing was rigged to the conspiracy crowd because IMO the delay in the drawing had no effect on the outcome. Hopefully a better process will be designed so something like that doesn't happen the next time the jackpot is over $billion.

Comment #24

noise-gate — Sat, 12 Nov 2022 23:43:23 GMT

* Now which Clown downgraded my last salient point- raise your hand, identify yourself

Comment #23

Todd — Sat, 12 Nov 2022 22:52:23 GMT

It wasn't just the amount of data. It was a telecommunications error that caused the original problem. And then when communications was finally restored, they found they couldn't just resume processing they needed to start the entire process from the beginning. That need to start over turned a couple hours of delay into 9 hours.

Comment #22

Raven62 — Sat, 12 Nov 2022 21:00:10 GMT

And Vice Versa!

They let you go first, then buy the Winning Ticket

Comment #21

Big Joey — Sat, 12 Nov 2022 20:46:26 GMT

Buying lottery tickets is dog eat dog, letting a person go before you can make that person a winner, and not you.

Comment #20

justadream — Sat, 12 Nov 2022 20:30:44 GMT

One will never know for sure but those videos could be days or months old.

Comment #19

mightwin1 — Sat, 12 Nov 2022 20:18:01 GMT

Was the drawing still held Monday night or did they just wait to release the results? The host said have a good night, that's odd if the drawing was delayed till 8am. I think the drawings are done at a certain time each day no matter what since they are just videos and not live.

Comment #18

Stack47 — Sat, 12 Nov 2022 20:09:00 GMT

but saying the problem was a communication error created an overwhelming amount of sales data doesn't explain a thing because the Minnesota Lottery sold more tickets on Saturday than they did on Monday and had no problems.

Whatever the real problem was in Minnesota, the results were still drawn in Florida and the winning ticket was sold in California.

Comment #17

dickblow — Sat, 12 Nov 2022 17:31:34 GMT

rigged rigged rigged they get away with it too

Comment #16

noise-gate — Sat, 12 Nov 2022 17:02:50 GMT

.. and all these clowns that are railing against my comments are to afraid to say of themselves l would have been the winner, not someone from CA.

Comment #15

cottoneyedjoe — Sat, 12 Nov 2022 15:55:42 GMT

I'm actually surprised they fixed it in 10 hours instead taking a full day. It must have been all hands on deck and grab a friend. I don't expect they'll make PB or MM a daily game any time soon, on account of this problem. What if a large state like CA or NY had a glitch and it required a full day

Comment #14

Tony Numbers — Sat, 12 Nov 2022 12:11:35 GMT

The day the numbers were drawn doesn't matter. What's more important is the time between when the individual balls are realeased into the chamber. If after the second ball came up they halt the process so she can read a commercial, the result will be different

Comment #13

winterhug — Sat, 12 Nov 2022 10:56:59 GMT

I agree, I don't think the Powerball drawing numbers would have been any different if the drawing was held on Monday at the correct time instead of Tuesday morning. The numbers that were drawn were meant to be.

Comment #12

Toobadd$ — Sat, 12 Nov 2022 06:40:44 GMT

It was some b.s. in the game...

Comment #11

wander73 — Sat, 12 Nov 2022 06:34:53 GMT

I am not buying this story one bit. I already showed why.

Comment #10

Stack47 — Sat, 12 Nov 2022 03:04:28 GMT

Because the same numbers would not have been drawn the night before.

The butterfly effect

I guess you could say had the drawing been a minute earlier or a minute later the results would be different too. But without the results from a 10:59 PM EST drawing, we'll never know for sure.

Comment #9

Stack47 — Sat, 12 Nov 2022 02:50:44 GMT

As a result, the Lottery decided to start over processing the entire day's sales data at around 2:15 am. The process took about five and a half hours

They sold its last Powerball ticket at 9:00 pm and had an hour to balance the data but someone made the call to start over and that took five and a half hours.

My question is how was the drawing effected by one state not balancing their data in time?

But it could be worse had someone in Minnesota won after the delay. And the conspirac... [ More ]

Comment #8

EnReval — Sat, 12 Nov 2022 01:59:26 GMT

Maybe, you're saying different numbers would have come out on Monday night instead of Tuesday morning

Comment #7

andl — Fri, 11 Nov 2022 23:47:08 GMT

Yep.

Comment #6

noise-gate — Fri, 11 Nov 2022 23:34:58 GMT

* Accept the reality we live in. The die is cast so to speak.

Comment #5

Tony Numbers — Fri, 11 Nov 2022 23:17:04 GMT

What about when the numbers were being drawn on Tuesday,, After the second ball popped up the ball lady stops to make a congratulatory announcement, clearly disrupting the flow of the drawing. Her action changed the outcome of the drawing result. If she didn't interrupt the draw the result would have been different .

Comment #4

andl — Fri, 11 Nov 2022 23:12:40 GMT

Because the same numbers would not have been drawn the night before.

Comment #3

Raven62 — Fri, 11 Nov 2022 22:59:45 GMT

This is what happens when you have millions of people trying to bet their way to Financial Freedom

Comment #2

noise-gate — Fri, 11 Nov 2022 22:58:58 GMT

... and you know this how? The different person thingie? Isn't that like saying had l put my left leg first through my pants this morning instead of my right- l may not have been in this three car accident with me rear ending the car in front of me

Comment #1

andl — Fri, 11 Nov 2022 22:28:49 GMT

Crazy to think a different person(s) would have won the 2 billion jackpot if Minn did not mess up.

Minnesota Lottery confirms technical communications error delayed $2 billion Powerball drawing

Lottery Post — Fri, 11 Nov 2022 21:03:24 GMT

Lottery staff and vendors overloaded by sales data

By Kate Northrop

The Minnesota Lottery confirmed yesterday that the cause for the delayed $2 billion Powerball drawing was a technical communications error brought on by an overwhelming amount of sales data.

If you recall the Powerball fever that took over the nation this past week, you'll also remember the ten-hour delay before the drawing took place.

When the drawing did finally occur Tuesday morning, it turns out that just one... [ More ]