Winning the Lottery
The debate about whether or not a computer can Improve Your Chances of Winning the Lottery pivots on the understanding or misunderstanding of the word Random. How could the meaning of just one word cause so much confusion?
We know that over use and misuse of the words tends to dilute their meaning. Over the years, scientists, mathematicians and engineers have misused the word random by automatically applying it to any observation or analysis that was too complex to describe with simple mathematical formulas. In almost knee jerk fashion, any data they didn’t understand and couldn’t explain was labeled random.
For example, the paths followed by two colliding gas molecules are easily predicted; not random. But, predicting the paths of trillions of gas molecules is rather daunting. So, for many years, Brownian Motion, the vibrations of gas molecules, was said to be a random process only because of the shear vastness of the problem and our inability to analyze it. But, today, it is generally accepted that Brownian Motion is not random.
The same is true of the Stock Market’s Random Walk theory. It remained a valid theory only as long as the problem remained too complex to analyze. Also, winning at Black Jack or Texas Holdem is no longer considered pure luck. So, one by one, the validity of so called random games of chance is being challenged.
Over the last forty years, state sponsored lotteries have trumpeted the random draw theory; everyone has the same chance to win and nobody has an advantage. If this were true, why have the lotteries been trying to make their random games of chance, MORE RANDOM? Isn’t random, random?
The answer is NO! In fact, in recent years, the concept of lottery randomness has been challenged and, like the casinos, the lotteries have responded with various actions.
First, any possible mechanical advantage due to lotto ball design was addressed. The lotto ball was made more uniform. The numbers were no longer painted on the lotto balls because this unbalanced the ball. Air blower design was improved and motor speed was regulated to insure air speed did not vary with power fluctuations. This has had the effect of making the lotteries appear more random. You see, random doesn’t mean that Lottery Number Patterns do not exist; it simply means that lottery number patterns and trends are harder to identify.
Do you have any other examples of ‘Random Abuse’?
Tags: Improve Your Chances, Lottery Number Patterns, Winning the Lottery by Professor Dolph
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