The Georgia Lottery said it has taken multiple extra security and auditing steps to ensure the integrity of Friday night's Mega Millions drawing is maintained.
President Margeret DeFrancisco said officials will know sometime early Saturday if someone has won the $640 million jackpot. But before that happens, several hours of preparations will have taken place.
The 11 p.m. drawing will be carried live on WSB-TV, Channel 2.
“The main thing is that people have to know that the integrity of this game rests on the security of the drawing,” DeFrancisco told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “We take it very seriously, and very specific procedures are in place.”
The first order of business is selecting the balls that will be used, the lottery president said. The lottery has several sets of white and yellow balls, and the set used Friday will be chosen randomly, as they are each night.
There are also several ball machines, and one will be selected randomly for the drawing. The machine will be pretested after it is selected, DeFrancisco said.
“All of this will be recorded,” DeFrancisco said.
The lottery balls and equipment are locked in secure areas at WSB-TV in Midtown, where the Georgia Lottery drawings are held nightly.
Lottery host John Crow will then practice his script several times while the ball machines are running, DeFrancisco said.
As for security, Georgia Lottery regularly provides it, but WSB-TV will be providing extra security, DeFrancisco said.
She said that 15 minutes before the drawing, the Georgia Lottery will confirm with 42 other states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands that all lottery sales ended as they are supposed to, at 10:45 p.m. Eastern time.
After the drawing, the machines will be broken down, and the results will be verified by two auditors from KPMG; normally, there is only one auditor, the lottery president said.
DeFrancisco said that “sometime in the wee hours” of Saturday morning, officials will know whether there is a winning ticket, or tickets, how many and where they were sold.
It takes two hours and a dozen people to prepare for the 45 seconds it takes to conduct the nightly lottery, DeFrancisco said.
She said it is important for players to know that everyone has an equal chance, even if the odds of winning Friday night's jackpot were approximately 1 in 175 million.
About the Author
