IN the face of the whisperings of those who claim that the lottery game is fixed, both Supreme Ventures and Jamaica’s gaming regulators, the Betting Gaming and Lotteries Commission, say it is near to impossible.

The balls used in the lottery draws are specially imported and have to meet precise quality standards for size and weight, which must be certified by the Bureau of Standards, officials say.

Once that is done the balls are sealed, packaged and transported to their place of safe-keeping under armed guard.

“They are kept under lock and key and no one party has all the keys,” said Walter Scott, the chairman of the Betting Gaming and Lotteries Commission.

Those keys are held by Supreme Ventures, the BGLC and the games independent auditor, Deloitte & Touche.

“No one person or institution can unlock that room,” said Brian George, CEO of Supreme Ventures.

George explained, too, that there are a number of random tests to verify the authenticity of the draw, which persons wanting to see the process, can view.

The process is videotaped ahead of the broadcast of the draw on television.

The drawing process involves:

. at least 10 sets of 37 balls in the room for each lotto game in the room. These balls have been randomly weighed to verify that all the balls are of equal weight;

. One set of balls is randomly chosen, by putting chips numbers in a bag for a draw.

. there are five pre-draw tests to verify that the balls are playing randomly. If the same combination of numbers comes up three out of the five times then that set of balls will be rejected.

. In the case of rejection the process is repeated.

“Everything is done to assure the randomness of the draw, because the most important thing people must feel is that there is equal opportunity,” said George.

According to the Supreme Ventures’ calculation, there are over 2.4 million possible permutations using the 37 numbers in the game.

To win the lottery requires having the six drawn numbers.