There are 2 main ways lottery numbers are picked.
In this video I explain what these 2 ways are, how numbers are selected and the differences between them.
(The text version is below the video if you prefer to read rather than watch)
Transcript of the How Are Lottery Numbers Picked Video
Today I wanted to talk to you about how winning lottery numbers get picked.
It varies from game to game, but there are two ways numbers are drawn.
Firstly we have the traditional ‘ball based’ draws.
These are still fairly common but are becoming rarer. Mainly because they are expensive to run.
Ball based draws require highly specialised machines. They may look pretty simple – but they have to be built to very precise standards. Then there’s the cost of maintaining and keeping it secure. And of course lottery companies rarely have just one machine!
Sometimes ball based draws are broadcast live on TV. But this is also changing, as more and more companies are just recording the draws and putting them on their websites. Or just publishing the results.
It’s a shame. As there is a lot more excitement in watching those balls appear live out of the draw machine.
Players also find it a lot easier to trust a draw they can see. It’s easy to understand exactly how a draw works when you can watch the balls being drawn out one by one.
The machines themselves vary in design, but all work in the same general way. The balls are loaded into tubes in numeric order. The machine is started up and a paddle or spinner starts to rotate. The balls are dropped into the main drum, and get bounced around and mixed up. Then one by one a ball is removed. It’s all done automatically without anyone touching the machine itself.
Interestingly you’ll notice that draw machines are also made using a lot of clear plastic. There’s a good reason for that. It’s so you can see everything that happens during a draw. The balls are always visible – they never disappear behind anything as they are drawn out.
This is all to help reassure you that everything is honest and transparent.
The second way numbers are picked is by using a computer based lottery draw machine.
These computer generated draws are becoming the more common way to manage lottery games. Mainly because it’s cheaper.
Computer draws do use a pretty standard PC.
But with some extra highly specialised hardware. This extra hardware is the Random Number Generator itself.
It may not look like much but it’s a very different beast to anything you have in your own computer.
The problem with computers is they aren’t very good at being random. So as any decent programmer will confirm, software based number generators aren’t really very random!
Which is a big problem if you’re planning to run a lottery.
This problem is solved by ‘quantum randomness’. So instead of relying on software estimates of being random, hardware based number generators do not rely on computer code to generate the randomness itself.
Instead, they rely on things like radioactive decay, or photons of light bouncing off mirrors. Or in other words, physical events that are easily as random as balls bouncing around in a drum, and probably a lot more so.
But computer draws are not as popular with players, particularly those that have grown up with ball based machines. Because you have to trust the programmers and electronics experts rather than what you can see with your own eyes.
It’s also very rare for a computer based draw to be broadcast live. Because there isn’t much to see. Somebody clicks a button and the numbers appear on the screen.
That’s all.
These computer draws may be recorded for security purposes. But again, it’s very rare for the draw process to be available to watch.
As a result, people tend to trust ball based draws more.
But in reality, there is so much security, checking, and auditing around both types of draw, you really can trust them both.
Unless…tin foil happens to be your favourite type of hat material.
That said, there have been occasions where BOTH types of draw have been cheated. But it takes someone at a high level of trust on the inside to even be able to attempt it. You can read more about those cases in the links below.
I think ball based lottery draws are much more fun, exciting and organic as well as transparent. I don’t see how a lottery draw using a computer generated algorithm can be 100% random.