Mastermind of American lottery fraud admits he rigged jackpots

DES MOINES, Iowa — A man who helped write the computer code behind several U.S. lotteries, including some of its biggest, pleaded guilty recently to masterminding a scheme through which he rigged the winning numbers for jackpots in several states and collected millions of dollars.

Eddie Tipton, who worked for the Multi-State Lottery Association from 2003 until 2015 and was its computer information security director for his last two years there, appeared in a Des Moines courtroom, where he pleaded guilty to one count of ongoing criminal conduct and publicly acknowledged his lead role in the scheme for the first time.

“I wrote software that included code that allowed me to understand or technically predict winning numbers, and I gave those numbers to other individuals who then won the lottery and shared the winnings with me,” Tipton said when asked by Judge Brad McCall to explain what he did.

Tipton, 54, said that when he wrote the code, he believed he was taking advantage of a loophole in the random number software and he didn’t think it was illegal.

Investigators say Tipton installed code that let the computers work as should on all but three days of the year — May 27, Nov. 22 and Dec. 29 — when they would produce predictable numbers if the drawings occurred on Wednesdays or Saturdays after 8 p.m.

Tipton admitted in court that he provided cohorts with the winning numbers for jackpots in Colorado in 2005, Wisconsin in December of 2007, Kansas in December of 2010 and Oklahoma in 2011.

The group also attempted to collect a $16.5 million Hot Lotto ticket in December 2010 in Iowa, but Iowa lottery officials refused to pay it because the men tried to cash it anonymously.

Tipton could get up to 25 years in prison when he’s sentenced.