Maine Moose Lottery: Is It Fair?

By V. Paul Reynolds

In Maine, the annual chance drawing of a permit to hunt moose is a high profile event. For most big game hunters, the permit is a ticket to the hunt of a lifetime. The odds of being drawn are formidable. This year about 75,000 resident and nonresident applicants entered the drawing for just 3,343 hunt permits.

Every year, there are many more losers than winners, and a few skeptics who follow the list of winners ask the same questions year after year: “Is the lottery really fair?” “I have been applying for more than 20 years unsuccessfully, yet my neighbor has been drawn three times? How can that be fair.” Or “ I know a family that got three permits the same year.”

In order to address these issues and shed light on the actual moose lottery mechanism, the Northwoods Sporting Journal submitted this list of questions to the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife (MDIF&W). Selected excerpts from the Department’s answers follow our list of questions.

For the 2026 moose lottery, what independent controls verify that every paid chance—including each additional chance purchased by a nonresident—is actually entered into the drawing, and what independent person or organization verifies the random selection?

    1. How many total chances were in the 2026 resident drawing?

    2. How many total chances were in the 2026 nonresident drawing?

    3. How many of those nonresident chances were purchased as additional chances?

    4. Who reconciles the number of paid additional chances with the number entered into the lottery database?

    5. Is the computer program independently audited?

    6. Who observes or verifies the actual random drawing?

    7. Is there an audit trail of the drawing?

    8. Has the system been independently audited at any time since the 2006 controversy?

    9. Does MDIFW retain the complete pre-drawing database so the drawing could be independently reproduced?

    10. Has any independent auditor ever certified that the lottery was conducted according to the published rules?

The lottery is administered through a rigorous, impartial, and carefully verified process, with multiple levels of review and safeguards in place to ensure that the rules are applied consistently, that applicant information is accurate, and that every eligible applicant and the chances they possess have an equal opportunity in the drawing.

We spend weeks checking and rechecking the data, the program, the results, and after the lottery is complete…

As a public agency in the State of Maine, we are also audited every 3-5 years by the Maine State Auditor. Since we receive federal funds…We have multiple people within the department who audit the lottery process through a comprehensive and extensive process to ensure its accuracy and integrity. The final applicant and chance database is independently reconciled, and the process of checking and vetting the database takes several weeks.

The lottery process works like this: The lottery program reads an application and then draws a random number for each purchased chance and each preference point, the lowest random number drawn is assigned to the application. After every application has a random number, the applications are sorted and the applications with the lowest numbers are used to assign permits.

The computer program used to conduct the lottery is independently tested in multiple ways, both as a complete program, and by testing its individual components. This testing is performed by multiple people to ensure that the program is functioning as intended and that the lottery is conducted accurately. This is done repeatedly by several people. After the lottery is run, the results are retained and reviewed to ensure that they are legitimate and that the lottery was conducted properly.

In its response, MDIF&W said that if anyone has questions about the lottery process, they would be happy “to discuss the lottery and explain the process.” The Department contact is Mary Ellen Wickett. Her number is 207 215 6974. Her email is: [email protected].

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