Wheel of Names

How the wheel picks a name

The Wheel of Names splits a circle into equal-sized slices, one per entry in your list, and spins to a stopping point chosen by crypto.getRandomValues(), the browser's cryptographic random number source. That raw value is mapped onto the wheel's circumference using rejection sampling, so every slice has exactly the same chance of being under the pointer when the wheel stops, regardless of how many names you've added or how long the labels are. The spinning animation is just presentation; the winning slice is determined the instant the draw happens, not by simulating physics.

Remove-after-spin, sound, and focus mode

If you're running a raffle or picking students one at a time, turn on remove after spin so the winning name drops out of the wheel automatically, shrinking the remaining slices and guaranteeing nobody gets picked twice. Leave it off if you want repeat spins with the full list intact, like a daily "who's on snacks" wheel where anyone can come up again. The optional tick and win sound help in noisy classrooms or live streams where people are watching a screen from across the room, and the focus view enlarges the wheel and hides the editing panel so it reads clearly when projected or shared on a call.

Worked example: choosing a raffle winner

Say you've collected 40 raffle entries and three people bought two tickets each. Add each name once per ticket, so those three people appear twice — the wheel doesn't know about "tickets," only slices, so duplicating an entry is how you weight it. With 46 total slices, someone with two tickets has roughly a 4.3% chance instead of 2.2%, exactly double, which is the correct odds for buying two tickets. Spin, remove the winner, and if you're giving away multiple prizes, keep spinning with remove-after-spin on so the same person can't win twice unless that's the rule you actually want.

When to use this tool — and when not to

The wheel is a good fit whenever you want an audience to see the process, not just the result: classroom call-outs, live giveaways, team stand-up "who presents first" moments. If you just need a fast, private answer with no visual spectacle, the random number generator or a plain list draw is quicker. For choosing several winners at once rather than one at a time, the random winner picker is built specifically for that and shows all winners together instead of requiring repeated spins. And if your decision only has two options, the yes-or-no wheel or a straight coin flip is simpler than dragging a 50-slice wheel down to two.

Common mistakes

• Leaving blank rows or accidental duplicate names in the list — check the count before spinning if the odds matter, like in a paid raffle.
• Forgetting remove-after-spin is off by default, then being surprised when the same person wins twice in a row during a multi-round draw.
• Adding "weighted" entries by typing them multiple times without telling participants — be transparent about ticket counts if fairness is being judged by others.

Fairness note

Every slice has an equal chance of being selected relative to its size; a wheel with 40 equal names gives each one a 1-in-40 chance per spin. The tool doesn't claim results are "100% random" in some absolute philosophical sense — it uses the browser's cryptographic random source, which is far less predictable than typical pseudo-random generators used for casual games, and that's what makes it suitable for real drawings. For deeper background on the distinction between random sources, see the guide on Math.random() vs crypto.getRandomValues().

Privacy

Everything runs in your browser tab. Your name list is stored in your browser's local storage, shared with other RandoKit tools on the same browser, and never uploaded to a server. You can export results as .txt or .csv, or share a spin setup via an encoded URL, but nothing leaves your device unless you choose to share that link.