Lotto Changes

The popular Lotto game in New Zealand is changing and not before time. Lotto has become unpopular and the changes look to revive the game.  Will the changes have any effect? My prediction is it will have a short-term effect, but long-term the game is a dud and here's why:

Gamers, rightly or wrongly, have come to see the game as being rigged. Incredible I know, how could a game like that be rigged? But they still think that and that's a major problem. Let's look at why gamers think the game is a put up job. Kiwis travel overseas a lot and have established contacts in the UK. There has been many controversies in Britain surrounding their Camelot lottery and word filters back.

Then there are the very few instances of statistical cuteness or anomaly. What I'm talking about is there are few draws where there are many winners of division 1 off a cute number selection. For instance, if the six winning numbers in division 1 are 1,2,3,4,5,6 then the top prize would be shared by tens of thousands of people. But very few cute number sequences drop out of the barrel. People see one or two winners of division 1 each week, then invariably off the Powerball jackpot, one winner after a cosy time period and reasonable multiplying effect.

Note, I'm not saying Lotto is rigged, just that as the game has developed it has taken on the appearance of being rigged, The two are not the same thing but they look one and the same.

How could the game be rigged? The only way to rig the game is to change the weight of the balls. Thus, balls should be weighed individually when going in and when coming out (this covers different chemical composition or gas filling the inside void of the ball). They could have several sets of balls and a random stranger used to choose each ball going in, say, individually select one ball from any set; 40 ball Lotto game, 40 sets of balls, one ball from each set. You get the idea. No chance of choosing the favoured balls with that type of arrangement. What do the Lotto people do in reality? I'm not sure, but I don't think they weigh each ball individually in and out.

The changes as announced (see the changes here) do not address the level of mistrust gamers now feel. Putting the price up and making a few changes won't rebuild that trust.