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South Africa’s national lottery on Tuesday night drew consecutive numbers 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and a “PowerBall” number of 10, prompting immediate allegations of fraud.
The 20 lucky ones who showed up each won 5.7 million rand ($ 369,000) and another 79 received around 6,283 rand ($ 407) each for guessing the correct sequence but failing the critical PowerBall.
“Congratulations to the 20 winners of tonight’s PowerBall drawing,” the lottery tweeted on Tuesday.
Skepticism abounds
As social media commentators raced, a spokesperson for South Africa’s National Lottery Commission (NLC) defended the randomness of the winning combination.
“These numbers may be unexpected, but we see that many players choose to play these sequences.”
Restless skeptical Twitter users in South Africa and accused the lottery of foul play, without citing further evidence.
“Lotto exposes himself that he is a scam,” posted a Twitter user.
“20 people discussed this and shared that jackpot equally,” ventured another.
“Absolutely no way in hell is that a coincidence,” said another.
Research to follow
After the numbers were drawn live on television, the NLC, which regulates the game, admitted that the combination of six consecutive numbers was unprecedented.
In a nod to critics, spokesman Ndivhuho Mafela assured AFP news agency that the commission will conduct a review “and if there is something that went wrong we will declare it.”
However, they reminded lottery players that it is not impossible given that the odds of a set of numbers being selected for the PowerBall are approximately 1 in 42 million.
Although it is not uncommon for two players to share the same jackpot, multiple winners are extremely rare. Still, in March 2003, 33 players won a share of the jackpot, according to a South African website that recounts the results.
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