Are RNG's Random Number Generators used in state lotteries completely as random as the old mechanical ball machines?

Question

Are RNG's Random Number Generators used in state lotteries completely as random as the old mechanical ball machines? Or will the draws/selections from the RNG's change the game so players using charting systems using applied probability outcomes to track the numbers not have a fair advantage any longer?

Answer 1

Mechanical ball machines are much more likely to be random and unpredictable than most RNG's, which is why most lotteries don't use RNG's You might identify which ones do use RNG.

"so players using charting systems using applied mathematical algorithms predicting probability outcomes" have no advantage in a ball system - looking at what has happened in the past and computing probability of future numbers is meaningless.

Answer 2

What is a "fair advantage"? Isn't an advantage inherently unfair ? That's the whole point, isn't it ? But whatever, the results of the draws are public knowledge, so if there was any predictablity about the results, how would it be kept secret for the benefit of a privileged few ? Everybody would soon know about it, and everybody would be taking advantage of it (does that make it a "fair advantage"?). Which would presumably result in the system being changed. So it doesn't matter whether they are "completely random" (which is another term whose meaning I am not completely sure about) or not.

Answer 3

to my knowledge all random number generators use a seed number. that is a number that starts the equation.



if the seed number is picked by a human then just picking the same seed number will result in the same random number being generated.



with some ingenuity you can use a truely random event to generate the seed number. the random event can be the time of the generation of the number.



each computer has a date time number. this date time number is just a number ... that usuallly represents the year , month , day, hour, second, microsecond, and so on



this being said each microsecond will change the result of the random number generator..



this means that the random event of when the draw happens will seed the random number generator making the result of the random number generator as need to random as it can..

Answer 4

They probably use random number generators based on electrical noise. That's how the machine used to select premium bond numbers in the UK works. It's completely unpredictable.

Answer 5

I don't know the specifics, but modern RNGs are likely to be more random than the old mechanical systems, not less.

Answer 6

Generating a true random number electronically is very difficult...there's always a buried pattern. It may be very deeply buried, but it's there.

Answer 7

idk