Lottery machine
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A lottery machine is the machine used to draw the winning numbers for a lottery.
Early lotteries were done by drawing numbers, or winning tickets, from a container.
In the UK, numbers of winning Premium Bonds (which were not strictly a lottery, but very similar in approach) were generated by an electronic machine called ERNIE.
An older type of lottery machine has a rotating drum with contrarotating arms inside. A number of balls, each with a possible winning number on, are dropped into the drum while it is spinning. A hole on the drum's side where the balls drop to be the winning numbers, one at a time. Machines of this type are used in Lotto type games, such as 'Lotto 6-49', Lotto 6/48 or other formulas and the American game Mega Millions. See the UK National Lottery.
A modern type of modern lottery machine has a fan in the bottom the blows the balls around the inside of the container. The winning numbers go up and out through a tube. One notable lottery that uses this kind of machine include Powerball of the United States.
Because of the massive payoff for a successful cheat, lottery machines are subject to strict security measures. In some cases there are several machines and several sets of balls, and the combination to be used is selected at random just before the draw.
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