CinchPad

Wheel of Names

Add your names, spin, and let the wheel decide. The result is chosen by your browser’s secure random source — the animation just shows you where it landed.

Is the wheel actually fair?

Yes, and it is worth understanding why the animation is not what decides it. The winner is chosen first, using crypto.getRandomValues with rejection sampling so every name has exactly equal probability. The wheel then animates to that predetermined position. This is deliberately the opposite of a physical wheel, where friction, starting position and spin strength all introduce bias — a real wheel of fortune is famously exploitable for that reason.

Where a wheel beats a plain list

Functionally, the wheel does the same job as a name picker. The difference is entirely social, and it matters more than it sounds.

  • Classrooms. A visible spin feels fair to students in a way a hidden algorithm does not. Turn on "remove the winner" so everyone gets asked before anyone is asked twice.
  • Live giveaways. The build-up is the point. On a stream, the four seconds of spin do more for engagement than any instant result.
  • Team meetings. Choosing who presents first, who runs the retro, who gets the last slot.
  • Household arguments. Chores, who picks the film, who does the washing up. The theatre defuses it.

Why real spinning wheels are not fair

A physical wheel is a deterministic mechanical system, not a random one. Given the starting position and the force applied, the outcome is in principle predictable — and in practice, wheels develop biases.

Roulette provides the documented cases. In 1873 Joseph Jagger hired clerks to record thousands of spins at Monte Carlo, found a wheel with slightly worn frets that favoured certain numbers, and won a fortune before the casino rotated its wheels. A century later, groups using concealed computers to time the ball did the same thing with physics rather than defects.

Casinos now rebalance wheels constantly for exactly this reason. A digital wheel has no frets to wear, which is why the result here is drawn cryptographically and merely displayed as a spin.

How to use the Wheel of Names

  1. Type or paste your names into the box, one per line.
  2. Press Spin, or click the wheel itself.
  3. Tick remove the winner if you are drawing several in sequence.

Frequently asked questions

How many names can I add?

There is no hard limit, though labels shrink past about thirty and become hard to read. For very long lists the random name picker is easier to work with.

Can the same name win twice?

Yes, unless you tick "remove the winner after each spin", which takes each winner out of the list as it is drawn.

Is the spin predetermined?

The winner is selected before the animation starts, then the wheel animates to it. The selection itself is cryptographically random and uniform, so this makes it fairer than a simulated physics spin, not less fair.

Are my names saved?

No. They stay in your browser and are gone when you close the page.

Does it work on a phone?

Yes. The wheel scales to the screen and you can tap it directly to spin.

Related tools

Random Name Picker Paste a list and draw a fair winner, or several, with no repeats. Random Team Generator Split any list of names into balanced random teams or groups. Coin Flip Flip a fair virtual coin, one at a time or hundreds at once. Dice Roller Roll any number of dice, from a single D6 to a fistful of D20s.

Last reviewed September 4, 2026. Results are estimates for general information only.