On Wednesday night, behind a double-locked sealed vault in a studio in Tallahassee, Florida, two out of four $50,000 machines will randomly decide who could win the estimated $750million Powerball jackpot.
But what millions of expectant lottery contestants see as a kinetic jumble of white and red balls in transparent bubbles starts hours before the drawings, guarded by protocol and lock and key, said Sue Dooley, director of draws and production for the Multi-State Lottery Association, which runs the lottery across the country.
"All of the Powerball drawing equipment and ball sets are kept in an alarmed, double-locked and sealed vault," said Dooley, in an email.
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The vault
Every Wednesday and Saturday, in the Tallahassee lottery studio, hours before the drawing, a minimum of three people are required toopen the vault where the machines are stored.
A Florida Lottery security officer has the access code that disarms the alarm system and the MUSL draw official and someone from the independent accounting firm each have keys to the separate locks on the vault, Dooley said.
All of this is video- and audio-recorded, she said.
The machines and balls
Four machines are available for each drawing and each machine has the ability to pick either five balls, for the first five numbers, or one ball, for the Powerball number. There are four white ball sets and four red ball sets that can be used during a drawing, with each ball set sealed with a unique numbered seal, Dooley said. Before every drawing, the seal numbers are confirmed. The average life span for a ball set is twoto four years.
Just as the lottery itself is random, the ball sets and machines used also are randomly selected.
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The Powerball drawing
Before the live drawing, the balls are loaded into the machines in numerical order. The independent auditor and MUSL draw official check to see that all 69 white balls and all 26 red balls are in the machine.
Then, the draw official presses three buttons: one to start the draw machine, the second to release the balls into the mixing chamber and the third to begin the selection process, Dooley said.
The balls are allowed to mix for at least 5 seconds before the select mode button is pushed. Once the select mode button is pushed, the machine begins an automatic draw process, which the draw official has no control over.
The machine mixes the balls, then automatically slows the paddles to allow a ball to fall randomly to the bottom of the drum, she said. When a ball falls into the hole at the bottom of the drum, the lighted pole lifts that ball to the top of the machine, to roll down to the selection tray.
When the fifth and final white ball has been selected, the draw official will trigger the red ball machine to select the red ball.
Once the drawing is complete, the machines are turned off.
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How safe and secure is the Powerball drawing?
Before the drawing even starts, four pre-tests are done on the primary ball sets. The pre-tests ensure that the machines and ball sets are drawing randomly. The results are tallied at the end of the pre-tests.
If any of the officials raise a question, the ball sets are put through a set of test draws and the results are checked against standard statistical tests, Dooley said.
Before a ball set is put into use, each set is removed from service and taken to a state lab to be measured at the equator and poles and weighed and tested for density, Dooley said. Each ball also is X-rayed and examined for problems inside the ball.
Once the tests are complete and the ball sets are certified by the lab, three draw officials take the ball sets back to the locked vault. Before being put back into service, the ball sets are once again tested and the results submitted to statistical tests, Dooley said.
This process happens at least once a year after a ball set is put into service.
Once the actual lottery drawing begins, the MUSL draw official has no control over the behavior of the lottery machine, Dooley said.
Similarities tothe NBA Draft Lottery
In less than two months,another lottery drawing with millions on the line will be held: the NBA Draft Lottery.
On May 14, in a similarly closed and secure room, NBA officials will conduct a drawing to determine the order of selection for the draft, including the coveted top four picks.
In appearance and equipment, the two lottery drawings work much the same. Powerball and NBA Draft Lottery drawings use machines from Smart Play, a lottery draw machine and systems company based in Edgewater Park in Burlington County, according to an NBA Draft document.
Similar to the Powerball, 14 balls numbered 1 to 14 are loaded into a lottery machine and mixed for 20 seconds before the first ball is removed, according to the NBA document. The remaining balls are mixed in the machine for 10 more secondsbefore the second ball is drawn. There is a 10-second mix, and the third ball is drawn, and it continues in that pattern until the last ball is drawn.
But the basic mechanism and equipment used is where the similarities end for the drawings. The balls used in the NBA Draft Lottery are ping pong balls, while the Powerball drawing uses rubber balls.
The Powerball drawing mixes the balls for at least5 seconds before the automatic drawing process begins, much less than the 10 to 20 seconds for each pick in the NBA.
And while the Powerball drawing is broadcast live, the NBA Draft Lottery is drawn behind closed doors and broadcast later.For the NBA Draft Lottery, the length of time the balls are mixed is monitored by a timekeeper who faces away from the machine and signals the machine operator after the appropriate amount of time has elapsed.
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