Drawing lots on your iPhone: three fair ways to decide, divide or order a group

What drawing lots means, and why a phone does it well

Drawing lots just means deciding something by a random act instead of an argument, like pulling a short straw or a folded slip from a hat. It feels fair precisely because nobody at the table controls what comes out.

A phone app does the same job without cutting paper or losing a straw, and it can do it for a number, a name or a whole group's order in a tap. Random draws with the same system random generator iOS uses for its own security, with no seed and nothing to predict.

Lots are names: who goes, who's it, who wins

1. Open Random and tap List on the Home tab.
2. Tap New list, type a List title, and type each name in its own Item title field, tapping Add new item for the next one.
3. Tap Create, open the list, and tap Generate. One name is drawn and shown on screen.

Every draw uses the whole list, so the same name can be drawn again next time. That is fine for a single lot; for a group where each person must be drawn exactly once, use the order method below instead.

Lots are numbers: a position, a share, a line

For a single number between two limits, such as which shelf, which table or which round, type the limits in Min and Max at the top of the Home tab and tap Generate. Each number in the range has an equal chance; with 1 and 20 for example, each number has a 5% chance.

Lots decide an order for the whole group

The classic use of drawing lots is ordering a group: who goes first, second, third, and so on, with nobody skipped and nobody repeated. Random's Bingo drum is built exactly for this, because every ball it draws is removed from play.

1. Write the group's names next to the numbers 1 upward, in any order, on paper or in Notes.
2. Open Bingo and type the group's size next to Max numbers: .
3. Tap Generate once per person. Read the drawn numbers in order from the board of called balls, and match each one to a name.

With 8 people, any one of them has exactly a 12.5% chance of being drawn first, and the drum always hands out all 8 positions with no repeats and nobody left out, because every ball is removed once it is called.

What drawing lots in the app does not do

Random is one phone, one screen: there is no online or remote mode to draw lots at the same time as friends on other devices, so for people who are not in the room, draw on a video call so everyone sees the same screen. It also keeps no record of a draw once you leave the screen or draw again, except the current Bingo game in progress, so take a screenshot if you need proof later.

Questions and answers

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