With Lotto fever in the air for the biggest jackpot ever, some people have been venting their frustration at not winning by accusing the National Lotteries Control Board (NLCB) of rigging the game. One friend opined, “Ever notice that when the jackpot is huge, only one person wins? And when it’s small, more than one person wins? I tell you, this thing is rigged!” My vague recollection of past big jackpot winners seemed to accord with this, even allowing for his non sequitur.
While I would be hesitant to believe that the system is rigged in the way some have suggested, I am certain that the NLCB “rigged” the system in its favour every time they tweaked it. What’s worse, they have been less than honest with the population.
I vividly remember when the NLCB changed the Lotto from “pick 5 from 32” to “pick 6 from 36” and unashamedly pretended in advertisements that this was to the people’s advantage. “More numbers to choose from,” they boasted, while omitting to mention that your odds of winning had now been reduced from 201376-to-1 to a whopping 1947792-to-1, a factor of almost 10 (9.7).
Some time later, they introduced the notion of the powerball (pick 5 from 36, plus powerball, 1 from 9), again pretending they were making the Lotto more attractive to players. Nope. This further reduced your chance of winning to 3392928-to-1, almost 17 times your chance of winning the original Lotto.
Every time they changed the system, it has always been to reduce the odds of someone winning, while, at the same time, making more profit for the NLCB. While I have no quarrel with this (it’s a business, after all), at least be honest about it. On the other hand, to sustain interest in the game, the players must feel they have a realistic chance of winning.
The game was much more fun when, almost every week, you heard about someone winning or sharing a million dollars. As it is now, many people are being turned off from playing the Lotto. To revive interest, while still making a healthy profit, I recommend that the NLCB go back to the original Lotto of picking 5 numbers from 1 to 32 (odds of 201376-to-1). I would even support picking 5 from 36, though my odds of winning would now be cut by half, 376992-to-1. Still, this is nine times better than what obtains with the current format. I guarantee that the general population will find this very attractive.
Noel Kalicharan