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THE LOTTO EFFECT: TOWARDS A TECHNOLOGY OF THE PARANORMAL by Damien Broderick. Hawthorn: Hudson, 1992. Pp. 279. Paper. ISBN 0-949873-41-1.
When is a psi experiment not a psi experiment? When it's lotto. Okay, not exactly a classic riddle, I admit, but it is the underlying theme of Broderick's book. Let me explain. To play lotto, you are typically required to attempt to predict which numbers will be chosen from a larger pool of numbers by a mechanical draw machine at the end of the week (or, alternatively, on a Wednesday evening if it is a midweek draw). Although the size of the number pool can vary, one common variation is that you choose six numbers from the range 1-45. When it is time for the draw, the draw machine makes a random choice of six numbers, usually by mixing up 45 numbered balls and allowing just six to be released (a supplementary "bonus" number is also often selected). If your six chosen numbers match the six numbers chosen by the draw machine, then you are a jackpot winner, which means you share the jackpot prize-which could be in the region of a million dollars-with anybody else who chose the same six numbers. Fortunately, as there are over 8 million different possible combinations of six numbers from a pool of 49, you are not likely to be sharing the prize with that many other people. Unfortunately, it is just as unlikely that your six numbers will match the six winning numbers in the first place; that is, the odds are you will not be a jackpot winner. However, do not despair. If you match five, four, or just three numbers, you will also qualify for a prize, although the size of the prize decreases drastically as fewer numbers are matched.
Lotto, it would therefore appear, shares a number of characteristics with many psi experiments. Performance in both is measured in terms of how well one is able to accurately predict the output of a random number generator. Furthermore, one might argue that lotto is a particularly good place to look for evidence of psi, because lotto players are clearly motivated to...