How lottery and raffle fraud happens

Fraud in draws rarely needs Hollywood hacks. It often means controlling the generator, changing rules after the fact, or hiding seeds. If nobody can recompute the result, manipulation can stay invisible.

Typical failure modes

• Secret seeds — only the operator can reproduce the number
• Modulo bias — bad math favors some outcomes
• Post-hoc edits — range or time changed after seeing tickets
• Opaque apps — no public log, hashes or audit trail

What transparency changes

When entropy, parameters and hashes are published, changing any input changes the hash completely (avalanche effect). Participants can spot inconsistencies without trusting the host.

Practical checklist

Publish the process before the draw, freeze parameters, share verification URLs, and keep an audit log. EntropyDraw is built around that checklist.