Code let vendor predict winning numbers in multistate lottery games, officials say
IOWA CITY, Iowa — A lottery vendor for years manipulated drawings to enrich himself and associates by installing software code that allowed him to predict winning numbers on specific days of the year, Iowa investigators alleged Wednesday.
Authorities called the newly obtained forensic evidence a breakthrough in the investigation of alleged jackpot-fixing by Eddie Tipton, former security director of the Multi-State Lottery Association. A jury convicted him last year of rigging a $16.5 million jackpot, and he’s awaiting trial on charges linking him to prizes in Colorado, Wisconsin, Oklahoma and Kansas.
Prosecutors filed charges Wednesday against his younger brother, Tommy Tipton, a former justice of the peace and reserve police officer in Texas. He surrendered to authorities and was released on bond. He’s charged with criminal conduct related to his role in securing the Colorado and Oklahoma jackpots, which allegedly netted him $1.2 million in cash.
The case has rocked the Multi-State Lottery Association, an Iowa-based nonprofit that administers Powerball and other games for states.
Prosecutors alleged Eddie Tipton tampered with random number generators used by the association and state lotteries to pick jackpot winners. But their case had been based on circumstantial evidence because the generators had been erased or destroyed. Tipton’s defense has cited the lack of evidence as a reason charges should be dismissed.
Documents filed Wednesday show Wisconsin authorities recovered the random number generator used for a $2 million Megabucks jackpot claimed in 2008 by Tipton’s friend, Robert Rhodes. He is fighting extradition from Texas to Iowa, where he faces charges.
A forensic examination found that the generator had code that was installed after the machine had been audited by a security firm that directed the generator not to produce random numbers on three particular days of the year if two other conditions were met. Numbers on those days would be drawn by an algorithm that Tipton could predict, Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation agent Don Smith wrote in an affidavit.
All six prizes linked to Tipton were drawn on either Nov. 23 or Dec. 29 between 2005 and 2011.
Investigators were able to recreate the draws and produce “the very same ‘winning numbers’ from the program that was supposed to produce random numbers,” Smith wrote
Eddie Tipton was charged last year after authorities released surveillance footage of a person buying the winning ticket for a $16.5 million Hot Lotto jackpot and hot dogs at a Des Moines gas station in 2010. Colleagues identified the buyer as Tipton, a computer whiz who had unparalleled access to lottery software.
Tommy Tipton, 51, testified at his brother’s trial, saying the buyer looked nothing like his sibling. He
IN BRIEF also said Eddie doesn’t like hot dogs.
Months later, Tommy Tipton resigned his judicial position in Flatonia, Texas, after his brother was convicted and his name surfaced in the case.
The complaint filed Wednesday says Tommy Tipton came under scrutiny in 2006, when Texas investigators received a tip that the judge had $500,000 in cash.
He told them he got the money after winning a share of a $4.5 million Colorado Lotto jackpot, saying he recruited a friend to claim the $569,000 cash payout because he didn’t want his wife to know about it while they were considering divorce.
Investigators didn’t know then that Tipton’s brother wrote and installed the program that Colorado Lottery officials used to draw the numbers.
In 2011, Tommy Tipton purchased numbers that would win a $1.2 million Hot Lotto jackpot while in Oklahoma, the complaint said. A relative of one of Tipton’s friends claimed the $644,000 prize, which was returned to him.
WOMAN ACCUSED OF ANIMAL CRUELTY
WATONGA — A Blaine County woman was arrested on animal cruelty complaints after authorities seized emaciated animals living in deplorable conditions, said Travis Daugherty, Blaine County undersheriff.
Sherry Lanelle Hanson, 58, of Watonga, was arrested in Oklahoma County and remained in the Oklahoma County jail on Wednesday on $5,000 bail, Daugherty said.
Based on a tip, sheriff’s deputies began looking into the condition of horses and cattle on two of Hanson’s 160-acre tracts of land in rural Watonga, he said. Monday, deputies seized six horses and 22 head of cattle.
“The horses had no water and very little pasture,” Daugherty said. “The cattle did have water, but I wouldn’t have let my animals drink it.”
Some of the pregnant herd’s unborn calves are not expected to survive, he said. Deputies also found the carcasses of 24 beef cattle.
“It’s undetermined how long they had not been eating,” Daugherty said.
Daugherty said Hanson is facing 54 complaints of cruelty to animals.
Hanson was charged with cruelty to animals in 2013, at which time she was ordered to sell the animals and not own any animals in Blaine County, according to district court records.
She was charged then with seven counts of animal cruelty, pleading no contest to two counts of animal cruelty and receiving a five-year deferred sentence. The other criminal counts were dismissed.