[Surfside] NY Lottery Drawing Pops Up 9-1-1

[Paul Makepeace]

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Lottery-911.html

[full article]

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) -- On the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist
attacks, a date often repeated as 9-11, the numbers that popped up for
the New York Lottery were 9-1-1.

``The numbers were picked in the standard random fashion using all the
same protocols,'' said Lottery spokeswoman Carolyn Hapeman. ``It's just
the way the numbers came up.''

Lottery officials said Thursday that 5,631 people selected the winning
sequence. It wasn't immediately clear how much they won.

The 9-1-1 combination was picked so often, it reached the lottery's set
limit for combinations and sold out, Hapeman said. On any given day,
seven to 10 sets of numbers are ``closed out,'' she said.

Christopher M. Rump, an assistant professor of industrial engineering
who studies probability at the University of Buffalo, said there was a
one in 1,000 chance of the numbers ``9-1-1'' coming up on in the
lottery.

``I'm a bit surprised, but I wouldn't characterize it as bizarre.'' Rump
says. ``It's randomness. Every number has the same chance of coming up.
People tend to read into these things. I'm sure that whatever numbers
come up tonight will have some special meaning to someone, somewhere.''

A similar coincidence occurred Nov. 12 when the numbers 5-8-7 came up in
the New Jersey Lottery the day American Airlines Flight 587 crashed on
the New York coast.

Hapeman said Wednesday was the first time in more than a year that the
9-1-1 combination had come up in the New York Lottery. For the evening
drawing, the lottery uses numbered balls circulating in a machine. When
three levers are pressed, three balls pop up into tubes randomly.

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-- 
Paul Makepeace ....................................... http://paulm.com/