Horace Heffner wrote:
Here's a thought about use of pseudo-random number generators in gambling machines. The sequence of random numbers is predetermined once a seed is chosen. It is thus possible to select a seed in advance which guarantees no payoffs until a certain point. In other words, it can be possible to rig the payoffs so there is no risk at all to the machine owner provided he resets his seed value periodically.
These machines are very carefully monitored by experts who are state employees. The machines have to pay out a certain percent and they have to keep a record. If a given machine did not pay out regularly, this anomalous performance would be spotted. The software in them is carefully vetted. I do not know the details, but if they do use pseudo-random numbers I am sure they are seeded by the real time clock, which is the standard procedure to ensure "real" randomness starting midway through the sequence, obviously. I think the seed is based on the current millisecond, so that the actual time of day cannot affect the performance.
Slot machine software and hardware is much better regulated and much more tightly controlled than voting machine software. Voting machines are so badly designed, and the software is so sloppy and amateur they are a joke. They are standing invitation to any half-wit hacker to steal an election. They are so bad that during a test, computer experts at Johns Hopkins was able to break into the machine over a phone line, alter the results of a dummy election, and erase all trace of their activities . . . in about five minutes. See, for example:
http://avirubin.com/vote/response.html - Jed
