National Lottery

[david63]

Does anyone else think that the National Lottery is "fixed"? By "fixed" I do not mean that a particular person can win but that when it suits the publicity there is one, or more, jackpot rollovers. There always seems to be a rollover just before Christmas and at other strategic times of the year.

[Andrea S]

They certainly have a habit of rollovers cropping up at such times.

Having said that there are numerous UK winners who have won vast amounts on the Euro Lottery .

The Daughter of someone I worked with won a massive double figure. Quite scary.

[Manoverboard]

No chance ... the balls are random and cannot be rigged, if they were the operation would be shut down in a trice.

[Dark Knight]

if there are too many rollovers, I think the maximum is 4
they drop it down to the next tier of winners

they can I suppose add flavour to it by doing promotional draws etc but I don't believe it is fixed in any way

[david63]

the balls are random and cannot be rigged

Yes the set of balls that is chosen is "random" (maybe) but each ball in a set is unique as it has a number on it. It is feasible that there is some form of code (magnetic?) built into the number.

[Dark Knight]

the machine is also chosen at random and independently adjudicated

it is in theory possible to alter the density of some of the balls to make them fall quicker or as you suggest magnetise the balls but to what end?, the machinery is not operated by magnet only by centrifugal and centripedal force, so making them heavier would give a better chance of success

but you are straying into the plot of a bad film or cop show

[towny44]

What surprises me is how few people now play compared to the early years, they used to have 6 or 7 million each Saturday, now its down to about 3 mill., and the ticket price has now doubled.

[Grando]

Have done the same numbers every week since it began (big mistake) and never won more than £25, so now think if I stop knowing my luck the numbers will come up! Maybe next year??? Doreen

[Stephen]

Does anyone else think that the National Lottery is "fixed"? By "fixed" I do not mean that a particular person can win but that when it suits the publicity there is one, or more, jackpot rollovers. There always seems to be a rollover just before Christmas and at other strategic times of the year.

it does make you wonder sometimes when it keeps rolling over.

Don't they know I can't afford to keep paying out twice in one week without a return of some sort

[Mervyn and Trish]

Statistics say that if you buy your ticket on Friday evening you're more likely to be dead by the time of the draw than win the jackpot. Safer not to buy a ticket I reckon!

But I agree with others, the dynamics of the machine make it impossible to fix.

[Frank Manning]

We stopped doing it when one evening, the number was announced before the ball was seen on TV. I do wonder if it is a 'fix' somehow. National Lottery is also somewhat discredited in our eyes. They are not even drawing a single number from a sequence that we are in. Some friends advised taking it all out and then buying a new block, to get into the latest number grouping.