Are Powerball drawings and 'Quick Pick' numbers really random?

Published January 13, 2016 This content is archived.

An article in The Conversation by Jeffrey Miecznikowski, associate professor of biostatistics, looks at whether Powerball and “Quick Pick” numbers are really random. “It can be illuminating to look at the number of Powerball tickets sold and the percentage of the 292,201,338 possible combinations that are covered by those tickets,” he writes. “These data strongly suggest that the Powerball computers are generating combinations with equal probability and thus at random.” The article also appeared on Live Science, MSN and SBS News in Australia.

https://theconversation.com/are-powerball-drawings-and-quick-pick-numbers-really-random-53103

http://www.livescience.com/53367-is-powerball-drawing-truly-random.html

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/are-powerball-drawings-and-quick-pick-numbers-really-random/ar-CCvErl

http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2016/01/14/comment-are-powerball-drawings-and-quick-pick-numbers-really-random