How does the main lottery computer system work?

Question by Robert: How does the main lottery computer system work?
I love playing the lottery just because it’s fun and I like to take risks. I have won a few prizes and I hope to keep playing to win the main Jackpot. I have always wondered how the main lottery computer system works. Whenever a cashier gives out the tickets how much do they really know. Can they recall a sheet of every ticket bought in that store and print it off. For example the jackpot for the Powerball for Saturday March 23, 2013 was 17, 29, 31, 52, 53, and the Powerball was 31. It was at 338,300,000 million. My question is could the cashier pull up that number at that gas station with 500 more numbers just like that and print it out on a piece of paper to look at. Could the main lottery computer system print out a list of all of the numbers bought there. My question is how does the main lottery computer system work? Is there an online public system to track all of the lottery numbers bought and if there is what is that site? Could I do an interview with a local lottery official to obtain more information on how it works and who would be the name of the person or is there a website that I can go to in order to find the names of the individuals where I can setup an interview and finally if I wanted to work for the lottery as a career what is the career site that I can go to in order to get a full time job doing it. I love the lottery and I love the risk. I actually want to make it my career.

Best answer:

Answer by pdq
Didn’t you just ask something similar?

If you look at the bottom of your lottery ticket, you will see a bar code and/or a QRC (Quick Response Code). You also might see a serial number.

This code and serial number is a unique number, and the number is sent to the lottery company. That number corresponds to every detail of your ticket. When you bought it. Where you bought it. How much you paid. What the numbers are. What the store is. Everything.

This is the reason that you can’t possibly forge a lottery ticket. It wouldn’t matter how perfect you made it. If the serial number doesn’t match a serial number in the lottery’s main computer, then it’s worthless.

If you want to make the lottery a career, then you need to stop playing it. This is for 2 reasons:

#1 – Only an idiot would think that they can make a career out of PLAYING the lottery. The lottery is the single worst bet on the entire planet. No other standard form of gambling comes even close to being as bad a bet as the lottery. It is a TAX on the poor and on the ignorant.

#2 – Once you become a lottery employee, you cannot play the lottery. You’re not allowed. It’s against the rules. (And maybe against the law – depends on the country/state.)

Two more point I want to make for you to really drive home the message of just how bad a bet the lottery really is. First, you said you hope to “keep playing to win the main jackpot”. I’ve got some bad news for you. You could spend $ 50 per week, each and every week for the next 70 years of your life, and you STILL would have, by any practical measure, ZERO chance of ever hitting any sort of lottery jackpot. It’s simply never going to happen. It’s not a “fun” truth, but I promise you it’s the truth nonetheless.

Second “last point” – The lottery company only pays out about 50 cents for every $ 1 they collect. So if 1 million dollars is spent by the people of a state in 1 week, (a slow week actually), only about $ 500,000 would be paid out to winning tickets. This is why I tell you no other form of betting comes even close to being as bad a bet. A 50% payback rate is HORRIBLE.