There is truth in this, but not everything.

It is obvious that when a lottery winner is shown on the media, it is not the real winner. First it is against their will ; almost every winner wants to stay anonymous for evident reasons.

Then lotteries are companies like every others, they have a communication department that select specific profiles to be shown to the media as winners. These profiles are of course the marketing targets of the companies (for identification.

This as been exposed this week in my country (Belgium). The national lottery admits it faked the winners, to protect the identity of the real winners (official reason) and to target specific market shares. They aren't very proud of it but say it's nothing illegal. More like a advertising campaign.

But there is no proof at all that the real winners are chosen. Only the fake ones.