20 players share the jackpot after consecutive numbers are drawn
By Kate Northrop
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — An unusually perfect series of sequential numbers that came up in South Africa's most recent PowerBall drawing has led to accusations of fraud, while others jumped in to defend the integrity of a game based on pure luck and chance.
The winning numbers drawn on Tuesday, Dec. 1 were all consecutive numbers, including the PowerBall itself – 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and PowerBall 10.
20 people purchased a ticket with the numbers and split the jackpot evenly, earning each winner 5.7 million rand (US$370,000). 79 players matched the first five consecutive numbers but missed the PowerBall, which meant that each of them took home 6,283 rand (US$414).
(Note: PowerBall in South Africa is a completely different game than the multi-state lottery game Powerball that is drawn in the United States.)
It is surprising to see such a unique sequence appear in lottery drawings, but Lottery organizers assured the public that the sequence of numbers is just as likely to come up as any other. The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 42,375,200, meaning that the unusual numbers in Tuesday's drawing are just one of over 42 million possible combinations that can be drawn from the set of 50 main numbers and 20 PowerBall numbers.
While it is uncommon for more than two winners to share the jackpot, the Lottery suggested that there were so many winners in the drawing since this particular combination is a popular one.
"Congratulations to tonight's 20 winners of the PowerBall draw," Ithuba, the operator of the South Africa Lottery tweeted on Tuesday. "These numbers may be unexpected, but we see many players opt to play these sequences."
However, many lottery players are either unconvinced or in disbelief at the strange string of numbers and voiced their thoughts on social media.
"So 20 people all selected 5,6,7,8,9,10 in the powerball draw last night?! #somethingfishy," Twitter user rocco8403 posted.
"I always suspected that lotto is rigged," a Twitter user under the name David Chirova said. "Today, proof has been given to us. These people are playing us week in, week out... This is a cartel that decided to give themselves Xmas bonuses."
Currently, the identities of all 20 jackpot winners are unknown. The South Africa Lottery allows players to remain anonymous, although Ithuba will retain confidential records of all winners of 50,000 rand (US$ 3,298) and more.
According to the Lottery, numbers in the PowerBall drawings are selected using a random number generator (RNG) in the presence of an independent auditor, but traditional ball drawings will be used only in the event that the RNG is not operational.
The National Lotteries Commission (NLC) of South Africa confirmed that it would be investigating the drawing and acknowledged that the result was unprecedented.
Ndivhuho Mafela, a spokesman for the NLC, said that the committee is currently in the process of reviewing the case, "and if there is anything that went wrong, we will declare that."
In the United States, computerized drawings are a foundational cause of the biggest lottery scandal in the lottery industry's history, and similar instances of suspicious drawings continue to be investigated.
The criminal mastermind behind the scandal has stated that to this day computerized lottery drawings remain fatally flawed.
As stated in the article "It is surprising to see such a unique sequence appear in lottery drawings, but Lottery organizers assured the public that the sequence of numbers is just as likely to come up as any other."
That is true, but I think someone's nose at the South African's lottery just grew a few inches.
#Pinocchio #EddieTipton #LoadOfCrap
To play South Africa PowerBall: You must pick five main numbers from 1 to 50 and one PowerBall from 1 to 20. Draws are held on Tuesdays and Fridays!
Odds of Winning Jackpot: 1 in 42,375,200
I mentioned this in the other thread where some posters insisted this drawing must have been rigged, why would people rigging a lottery drawing choose something as conspicuous as six consecutive numbers? They must be really stupid criminals if they chose a combination that would draw international media attention.
Still waiting as Coin Toss would say for jjPrince to say " Winning the lottery is so easy in South Africa."
Prince of thieves influence & know how is worldwide.
No combination is more special than another. All have equal chance of been drawn. The reason why we see less of this type of combinations is because, as a group, there are less of them, but within the group they have a higher probability of been drawn. So, if you calculate the probabilities, you'll see there is nothing special about it.
I don't think the outrage is necessarily that the drawing is rigged: I think the greater problem is that the drawing computer may be flawed. A sequence like that -- especially since they are all low numbers -- feels kind of like a test sequence that someone coding the computer might plug in as a temporary thing. (Someone testing a system would quickly type low numbers, rather than something like 36, 37, 38, 39, 40 and Powerball 41.)
As we've seen many, many times over the years, a mistake in a computerized drawing system is just as bad as a rigged system, because nobody really has a clue that something is wrong until sometimes months after the fact -- after countless tickets purchased by players in hindsight had no chance of winning.
Contrast that with a traditional lottery ball drawing, in which a mistake is often comical because it is so obvious. Anyone with a set of eyes can witness the actual mechanism by which the numbers are drawn, and they can intuitively see if something is amiss. With a computerized drawing, it is literally impossible to watch a program run as it selects the winning numbers. Even computer "audits" can be faked without anyone knowing.
I can confirm we have a lobby group investigating this draw......if you know the history of corruption in South-Africa its a no brainer -and those results simply put the fuel to the fire and its RNG. The truth will come out -watch the space.Thank you Todd for covering this story
Ricklou
Nick Perry!!!!!!
I don't think it's fraud. There is an unusual pattern emerging in quite a few states right now.
PA Lottery Cash 5 on 02-06-2004:
5-10-15-20-25
PA Treasure Hunt on 12-04-2010 (ten years ago today)
1-2-3-4-5
You're right dpoly1 - Nick Perry !!!!!!
i agree. it would be stupid to rig a game to throw out consecutive numbers. why can't they see this.
A few years ago California's Fantasy 5 drew 5 consecutive numbers. Most days there's 1 or 2 winners... That day there were 29 & you just know every one of them was thinking "Ha! I bet no one else won!"
So instead of the usual $70k, they each got a little over $2k