A televised lottery drawing lasts under a minute. Most of the work happens beforehand, and its purpose is the same in every state: to make sure no one could know or influence which numbers come up, and to leave a record that proves it.
What kind of machine draws Powerball and Mega Millions?
Both games use mechanical ball machines rather than computers. Powerball's is a gravity-mix design: balls go into a clear chamber where paddles spin and tumble them, and they leave one at a time through a gate. The equipment maker Smartplay International says its Halogen gravity-mix machine is used for Powerball in the US. Some lotteries use air-mix machines instead, which blow lightweight balls around a chamber with air jets and catch them in a tube.
Powerball is drawn every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday at 10:59 p.m. Eastern, broadcast from the Florida Lottery's draw studio in Tallahassee. Mega Millions is drawn every Tuesday and Friday at 11:00 p.m. Eastern at the WSB-TV studio in Atlanta. Neither machine has any memory of past drawings, which is why there's no such thing as a number being "due" (more on that in our guide to hot, cold and due numbers).
How do lotteries keep the drawing secure?
Mega Millions describes its routine on its drawing security page. The machines and ball sets for each drawing are chosen at random and certified by outside auditors. Each machine and ball set goes through a series of test draws first. Two lottery employees serve as draw officials, and a member of an independent auditing firm observes. Mega Millions says the whole process takes about three hours for a drawing that lasts less than 60 seconds.
Powerball follows a similar pattern. Its official numbers are those recorded under the observation of an independent accounting firm. In a 2019 look inside the Tallahassee studio, reporters were told that Powerball keeps four drawing machines and four sets of balls in a locked, alarmed vault; opening it takes three people, from the Florida Lottery's security staff, the Multi-State Lottery Association and the independent auditor; and the security director said no one knows which machine and ball set will be used until the selection is made on draw night.
Why so much procedure for a few numbered balls? Partly because of history. In 1980 a Pennsylvania Lottery drawing was rigged by weighting most of the balls with injected paint so that only a few could rise to the top, a case known as the Triple Six Fix. Ball testing, sealed storage and random selection of equipment are meant to make that kind of tampering impractical and easy to detect. Our post on whether the lottery is rigged covers that case and others.
What happens on draw night?
- Sales stop shortly before the drawing so that no ticket can be bought after the numbers are known. The cut-off varies by state; see when lottery ticket sales stop.
- The machine and ball set are selected and brought out under the watch of draw officials and the auditor.
- Test draws are run and recorded.
- The live drawing takes place on camera.
- The numbers are confirmed and recorded before they're published, which is why official results can take a little while to appear online.
Are lottery drawings done by computer?
Some are. Many state daily games, such as Pick 3 or Cash 5 style games, and some games with several drawings a day use a random number generator rather than balls. Which method a game uses depends on the state, and the state lottery's website usually says.
RNG drawings are run under controls comparable to ball draws: restricted access to the equipment, observers and logs. Their weak point is the people with access to the software. Between 2005 and 2011, Eddie Tipton, then information security director at the Multi-State Lottery Association, used code he had planted in drawing software to predict winning numbers on certain dates, and he and associates collected prizes in several states. He was sentenced in 2017 to up to 25 years in prison.
Are all drawings shown live?
No. Powerball and Mega Millions are broadcast and streamed, but many daily drawings aren't shown on television. Some lotteries post video afterwards, some publish results only. The drawing still happens at the scheduled time with the same controls. Our guide to lottery drawing times lists the schedules.
How can you check a result yourself?
The state lottery that sold your ticket is the final word on whether it won, and Powerball and Mega Millions publish their numbers on their own sites. Lottery Atlas posts results from an automated results feed shortly after each drawing: see the Powerball and Mega Millions pages, search past Powerball drawings by date, or download a game's full draw history as a CSV file. If our page and the official site ever disagree, go with the official site.
Lottery drawing questions
How are Powerball numbers drawn?
With a mechanical gravity-mix machine at the Florida Lottery's studio in Tallahassee. The machine and ball set are chosen on draw night, test draws are run first, and the result is recorded under the observation of an independent accounting firm.
Are lottery drawings done by computer?
Some are. Many state daily games use a random number generator instead of balls. Powerball and Mega Millions use physical ball machines.
Who makes sure lottery drawings are fair?
Draw officials from the lottery and a member of an independent auditing firm are present. Mega Millions says its machines and ball sets are randomly selected, certified by outside auditors and tested before every drawing.
How long does a lottery drawing take?
The drawing itself takes less than a minute. Mega Millions says the full procedure, including equipment selection and test draws, takes about three hours.
Why don't winning numbers appear online right away?
Results are confirmed and recorded before they're released to retailers, broadcasters and websites, so official numbers usually post some minutes after the drawing.
Sources: Powerball.com drawing page; Mega Millions drawing security page; Smartplay International product information; 2019 news coverage of the Powerball draw vault; coverage of the 2017 Tipton sentencing.
