South African Lottery operator ITHUBA and Random Number Generator (RNG) vendor Szrek2Solutions have confirmed the validity of the surprising national lottery draw result which took place at the start of December.

Since 2016, Szrek2Solutions has provided ITHUBA with its Trusted Draw RNG system for automated operation of the draw games. The operator moved its lottery draws from the traditional ball machines to digital draws, in line with industry standards and moving with innovation.

On December 1, 2020, a surprising draw result raised attention world-wide, as that night’s Powerball draw was: 8, 5, 9, 7, 6, and the Powerball number was 10. When sorted from lowest to highest, these numbers created a sequence 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 which raised general suspicion of foul play.

These concerns were quickly addressed and the validity of the draw was attested to by ITHUBA and recognised by the South African National Lotteries Commission. The validity of the draw relies on the unique properties of the Trusted Draw RNG system, which verifies the integrity of every draw.

ITHUBA and Szrek2Soultions have now explained how draw integrity is ensured by Szrek’s RNG method, the reason for many winners, and the statistics behind draw patterns.

In terms of draw integrity, they stated a feature of Szrek’s RNG technology is that it enables verification of the specific draw numbers and detects 100% of draw hardware faults and software fraud. They added that the technology, which is based on nonrepudiation, also allows for proving the integrity of legitimate, even if surprising, combinations.

ITHUBA and Szrek2Soultions said Szrek’s RNG system creates proof of integrity for each draw, which is then verified by an independent Trusted Audit system, to confirm the randomness and authenticity of the draw numbers.

The two companies noted the Internal Control System (ICS) automatically verifies with Trusted Audit the draw numbers used by the gaming system, attesting to their validity. Szrek’s RNG has been certified over 25 times by numerous independent labs, including Gaming Laboratories International (GLI).

ITHUBA stated its officials and their independent auditors using Trusted Audit verified the Powerball draw of December 1, 2020. Szrek2Solutions also said it verified the results after the draw had taken place. All reports on the draw and audit systems were identical, which confirmed that there were no hardware or software issues and that all the numbers were drawn properly.

Irena Szrek, CEO of Szrek2Solutions, said: “It was verified for its correctness and randomness, so we can warrant the integrity of this draw. Any independent entity, such as a regulator or external auditor, with access to our Trusted Audit technology, can verify the integrity and randomness of all draws.”

As for why there were so many winners, ITHUBA and Szrek2Soultions noted it was because the winning numbers formed a pattern.

They stated that people play numbers in patterns more often than any other numbers, patterns which include consecutive numbers, series, geometrical patterns on the bet slip, birthdays, etc. A normal consequence of the pattern in the winning numbers is that there are more winners.

Statistics wise, ITHUBA and Szrek2Soultions explained that both Powerball and Powerball+ (another draw game with the same matrix) have been played twice a week in SA for a few years. The probability of having a sequence of five numbers from 1 to 50 occurring once in a year is approximately 1 in 222 and with the Powerball (1 from 20) occurring as the 6th number in the sequence, the probability is 1 in 13,497.

The two companies added that over six years of playing the two games, these probabilities increase to 1 in 37 and 1 in 2,264, respectively, and there would be a higher probability of the event occurring when looking at all draw results that formed some type of a pattern that could be deemed ‘suspicious’ (e.g. if the numbers drawn are 2,4,6,8,10 or 5,10,15,20,25).

They rounded off by explaining how the likelihood of draw results forming a pattern should be considered not as a single event, but in a historic and geographic context, as an event in a global lottery environment.

Busisiwe Msizi, ITHUBA’s spokesperson, stated: “Unlikely number sequences can and will occur, and recognizing the importance of integrity and transparency, ITHUBA selected an RNG system that enables us to prove the integrity of the draw numbers to our players.”