Back in middle school, I did a science fair project on this for the Florida lottery. My hypothesis was that each ball was dropped into air-blown hoppers made by the same manufacturer to the same specifications, and each ball had slight variances in weight and aerodynamics due to the (assumed) pad printed numbers on the balls; thus, the &quot;hot numbers&quot; were statistically more likely to be drawn.<p>EDIT: also, the hypothesis included the average amount of time the balls were being tumbled before drawn.<p>It was, to my middle school statistical ability, correct at that time (ca. 1980s). The &quot;hot&quot; numbers &quot;won&quot; me over $3,000 over the course of two months. Random numbers? About $20.<p>Things have very likely changed since then, though.