Is the Millionaire Raffle ADM Hacker Proof?

Reply #17

jimmy4164 — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 18:14:57 GMT

Thanks for your input. There doesn't seem to be much interest here in the possibility that what I suggest could be true. I think most folks here are too busy working on betting strategies based solidly in their belief in the Gambler's Fallacy. (Check that out at wiki... (you know where.)) I've spent too much time on this; It's time to get back to work

Reply #16

rdgrnr — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 05:14:57 GMT

I'm with you, Jimmy. Ya gotta wonder.

I know one thing: Wherever there are large amounts of money, there are people working around the clock figuring out how to get to it surreptitiously.

And if it wasn't for skeptics, some of them might not have been caught already.

Anyone who has absolute confidence in their state lottery has their head in the sand.

Reply #15

jimmy4164 — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 04:28:55 GMT

Well, it's now a week since my original post, and we're still not sure whether Pennsylvania's Millionaire Raffle is secure or not. I forgot that LotteryPost serves a broad audience and many here may not be familiar with PA's offerings. Something you should know when judging my skepticism is that PA clearly spells out at their site that the Raffle tickets are retrieved by all the outlets from ONE central server, in SEQUENTIAL order. I leave it up to you to figure out the significance of that fact... [ More ]

Reply #14

Coin Toss — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 04:40:40 GMT

jimmy4164,

No too awful long ago casinos provided slots for high rollers wives to have something to do while thier husbands were at the tables. That was the thinking back then.

The visionaries in the business kept saying there was a generation coming up that were video game players and guess what they're going to plau when they're old enought to gamble.

One night we had an old time boxman go on break with us (the old timers had great stories) and he spotted three nckel slots that they h... [ More ]

Reply #13

jimmy4164 — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 03:51:33 GMT

The truth of your statement here is supported by the Trillion dollar fiasco we have yet to see the end of in our financial systems.

Reply #12

jimmy4164 — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 03:45:37 GMT

Thanks Jimmy,

I bet you have more than once considered cancelling all your plastic, save one debit card with a minimal balance!

My experiences writing programs for researchers, most of them PhDs in the social sciences, have convinced me that anyone relying on computers should be required to take a set of basic courses in logic and computer hardware and software. To the extent that this has not happened, computer engineers are in a position to take over! Middle managers rely on techies to p... [ More ]

Reply #11

jimjwright — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 00:08:55 GMT

I would be suprised if any lotteries or online gambling sites are using software only pseudo random number generators. I would expect them to use some type of hardware assisted random number generators. But you never know some companies/states are not very smart and might make poor decisions in order to save money.

As a side job in the past I created custom membership web sites for clients. They go thru the process of getting a merchant account, which gives them the ability to take credit car... [ More ]

Reply #10

jimmy4164 — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 22:57:14 GMT

Coin Toss,

I was in Vegas recently for the first time and marvelled at how seriously so many of the slot players took their work! We tried to get a feel for a ballpark number on what the house's edge was, but concluded we would have to stay there and record results for a very long time to come up with a reliable number. One thing we were convinced of was that if the house was only grossing a small percentage on slots, like they do in roulette, they must pay out some big wins once in a while,... [ More ]

Reply #9

Coin Toss — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 22:01:15 GMT

Not lotto, but video Keno and Poker

When I worked in downtown Vegas a co-worker and I used to walk through the Horshoe after work. We were on swing and got off at 2:00 or 4:00 a.m. so got to know some of the graveyard shift people at the'Shoe.

One night (2:00 a.m.) as we were walking through there one of the slot techs had some kind of gizmo hooked up to a bank of video Keno machines and we asked him what he was doing.

He told us since everything had gone to the chip (computerized) ther... [ More ]

Reply #8

GASMETERGUY — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 20:22:49 GMT

I do not play Tennessee's lotto games because they use RNG. There are just too many avenues condusive to fraud to suit me. This I know about human nature: If there is a way to take an advantage, people will take the advantage.

Reply #7

jimmy4164 — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 18:39:35 GMT

I forgot above -- if you insert Pseudorandom Numbers into your favorite search engine and pick one of the top entries from a place called Wiki... , you will find everything you ever wanted to know about them (and more!)

As for the advantage of having the Lottery's computer program: saying pressed enter at the very exact moment implies you are assuming their program *IS* randomizing the seed. But WE DON'T KNOW THIS, and it's the reason I posted here

Reply #6

jimmy4164 — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 18:23:43 GMT

You're on the right track GasMeterGuy. The only way to completely avoid fraud if Pseudo Random Sequences are being used is to use a PURELY RANDOM method to select the SEED. As you allude to, a common way to do this is to use, say, the low 31 bits of the system clock, ticking away in microseconds. Another way that I used in the past was to let the program run in a loop while waiting for a researcher to trigger the beginning of the random sequence. Each pass through the loop I would call the rando... [ More ]

Reply #5

jimmy4164 — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 18:12:31 GMT

ADM == Automatic Drawing Machine (A computer program controlled entity

Reply #4

jimmy4164 — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 18:09:32 GMT

Thanks rdgrnr,

What do you recommend?

I was hoping that my post would prompt the lottery commission to address my concerns. My recommendation would be for as many people as possible to contact them and request an explanation of how their ADM (Automatic Drawing Machine) is programmed. My phone call to the published number didn't get me beyond a very nice front gatekeeper who was completely clueless regarding the issue. Perhaps someone here has a better connection.

You're wise to be war... [ More ]

Reply #3

GASMETERGUY — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 17:21:26 GMT

A computer program to produce randon numbers can be done in several ways. Would you be so kind as to list several of the more popular ways or, perhaps, all the ways a program could produce random numbers (if the list isn't too long).

Back in the old days (TRS-80), a random number program used the system's clock to generate numbers. I have no idea how the seed is determine today and I would like to know.

And if you possessed the very same program the Lotto uses, would you have an advantage... [ More ]

Reply #2

Delta Draw — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 16:29:09 GMT

Good Post and thanks Jimmy

I am just glad that DeBold is not in the Lottery business.

DD

What does ADM

Reply #1

rdgrnr — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 16:16:54 GMT

It sounds like you would be the authority on this one Jimmy.

I don't know what state you're in but I don't have a lot of faith in the state lotteries as a whole. I generally trust PB and MM and what I have for the rest of them would have to be called hope rather than trust. The main bugaboo for me is simply the computer systems. I don't know all the mechanics involved or the machinations required to compromise them; I only know I don't trust them.

I had no idea about the info you just prov... [ More ]

Is the Millionaire Raffle ADM Hacker Proof?

jimmy4164 — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 06:10:51 GMT

My subject line question may upset some, and confuse others. Let me explain. I am a retired computer programmer/analyst with considerable experience designing and implementing encryption systems, as well as intimate knowledge of how sequences of random numbers can be produced. Rather than go into a long and esoteric mathematical explanation of random number generation, I will cut to the chase and direct my question to those who will know exactly what I'm talking about. Hopefully, at least one of... [ More ]