Comments in italics were made by the Lotto Report

Search continues for couple accused of killing lottery winner
WTEV
Last Update: 7/28/2005

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) - Hillsborough County authorities are searching for a couple accused of kidnapping and fatally shooting a multi-millionaire lottery winner.

Thirty-nine-year-old Tampa restaurant owner Jeff Dampier won ten (m) million dollars in the Illinois Lottery in 1996. The sheriff's office says he was found shot to death in his van Tuesday night in Seffner.

Detectives say Dampier's sister-in-law and her boyfriend demanded that he give them money. Victoria Jackson and her boyfriend Nathaniel Jackson -- no relation -- then allegedly forced Dampier at gunpoint into his vehicle.

Detectives say Nathaniel Jackson continued to demand money and pistol-whipped Dampier as they drove. They say Victoria Jackson took the gun and shot Dampier, leaving his body inside his van.

The sheriff's office issued arrest warrants for the couple yesterday. Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-873-8477.

Lottery not chancing integrity
(They sure want you to believe this but don't)
Balls inside a cage were fun to watch, but computer system maximizes reliability.

The Indianapolis Star, By Michele McNeil
July 29, 2005

No longer are Hoosier Lottery winning numbers determined by which white balls are plucked from a whirling mass inside a wire cage.

Now, winning numbers for Hoosier Lotto and daily games are picked in the office's security room, from a computer inside a black box secured every night with red, tamper-evident ties.

The reason: The blowing balls, though entertaining to watch, aren't as secure as the random number generator, according to lottery officials.

"More and more, the cost of providing the security and audit staff to oversee manual lottery draws is becoming excessive," reports New Jersey-based Gaming Laboratories International in a May letter to the Hoosier Lottery. The lottery had asked the company to certify its machine and make sure its random number computer was, indeed, random and fair. (The Texas Lottery was told that the drawings would be "fair" but NOT random. It was explained how tossing a coin was not even "random." You'll find this testimony in the May 2005 transcript. BYW - I'd much rather take my chances on tossing a coin and/or balls and machines - at least they can't program it to not draw certain numbers. If they wanted to cheat us, they could leave a ball out but then we're "suppose" to have "security" to guarantee that - but the sad truth is - we no longer have security. )

The problem with the ping-pong-like balls: All the balls need to be uniform, so if anything like oil or sticky stuff gets on one of them, that changes the odds. Also, the ball blower needs to reach full speed to make sure all the balls get tossed around.

For the past three years for the Hoosier Lottery, drawing numbers has been high-tech -- and secured through a multistep process that involves a security official conducting the draw under the watchful eye of an independent auditor.

The process for the midday draw starts about 12:45 p.m., when an auditor from Deloitte and Touche arrives and is escorted into the security room. On this day, it's Angela Cavanaugh, who, along with security official Amy Fishburn, inspects the red tamper-evident ties on the locked black computer box to make sure no one has opened the vault since the evening draw the night before.

A couple of minutes later, Fishburn cuts the red ties, opens the black box and pulls out a computer keyboard. She shakes a brown pea shake and rolls either the No. 1 red die or the No. 2 red die, which indicates which computer server will be used for the number pick.

Fishburn runs tests on the computer and makes sure the printer works as the auditor makes sure no unauthorized programs have been installed.

Then, they wait until the prize payment office downstairs calls to say the games are closed. That call comes about 1:20 p.m., and both Fishburn and the auditor separately talk to prize payment officials.

In about five minutes, with a click of the mouse button, Fishburn calls up winning numbers for the Daily 3 game, the Daily 4 game and Lucky 5.

The winning numbers are recorded by both watchers and faxed to media outlets and the prize payment center.

A video camera records the entire process.

Hoosier Lottery Executive Director Esther Q. Schneider said she'd be glad to televise these draws, except that the lottery can't afford to buy the time -- and television executives aren't interested in showing such boring programming for free.

Still, not everyone likes the new way of picking numbers. Former state Rep. Robert Alderman, a Republican from Fort Wayne, wrote a letter to the lottery last year questioning the change. He said he doesn't believe the computers are truly random.

In fact, he sponsored legislation this year, which didn't get very far, to make the lottery switch back to the balls. (There must be lots of greedy politicians in Indiana and they must have no knowledge of how lotteries "really" do things. They apparently do not care about the concerns of their constituents but they will when their revenues decline.)

Someone needs to find out how much the Indiana Lottery spent for the computer system and software. Texas paid (est) $400,000 for theirs and supposedly it was just for the Megaplier draws. If anyone believes that they're crazy. Texas is already set up to switch over to computerized draws at a minimal cost but they deny it. Time will tell.