South African authorities have launched an investigation on the operations of the country's national lottery after organizers were accused of fraud.
The accusations came after 20 people won a share of the jackpot when an unusual sequence of numbers was drawn.
The winning numbers for Tuesday's PowerBall lottery in South Africa were five, six, seven, eight, nine and 10.
Investigators said that it was extremely rare for there to be more than one winner of a jackpot during any given day. The sequence of numbers picked during Tuesday's draw understandably raised some suspicions, authorities said.
Organizers of the lottery were immediately accused of fraud after they announced that 20 people won $370,000 each. Another 79 lottery players won $410 each for guessing the first five numbers but not the PowerBall number.
According to the lottery organizers, the odds of winning the country's PowerBall lottery is one in 42,375,200. The process of picking the numbers is similar to the lottery in other countries, including the U.S. and Europe. Five numbers are picked from a set of 50 balls plus another number from a set of 20.
South Africa's National Lotteries Commission said that it will be launching an investigation into the allegations and will go over footage of the draw. The regulator added that it will review all the pertinent information and report its findings to the public once it is completed.
Experts said that picking a consecutive string of numbers is statistically the same as picking any other string of numbers. Tuesday's game was done in a televised live event and the numbers were picked randomly, the organizers argued.
"Congratulations to tonight's 20 winners of the PowerBall draw. These numbers may be unexpected, but we see many players opt to play these sequences," the organizers said in a post on social media.
On Wednesday, hundreds of people took to social media to share their opinion on the unusual draw. Some people said that the entire game was a "scam," while others expressed their disbelief. One player said that there was no way that the numbers that were picked were a coincidence.
