This is absurd.  I hope the winner some way, some how prevails.

Iowa's Lucky Larry Dawson's case may suffer the same fate. Both were cut checks, and both claimed they were jipped out of millions. We shall see...

They should appeal and file charges against the lottery for perpetuating the original fraud.

Anyone who's not a moron should understand that the only reason this guy won anything was because his numbers were fraudulently selected as the winning numbers.

That means that the court reached the reasonable decision, but they got there the wrong way. The lottery and Massihzadeh both entered into the contract believing that the drawing, and therefore the winning and distribution of the prize, was fair. As we now know that belief was a mutual mistake, unless one of the parties knew at the time that the drawing hadn't been fair. It's a well-settled matter of contract law that mutual mistakes about a material issue make a contract voidable, and the belief that the drawing and subsequent awarding of the jackpot was fair is very clearly a material issue.

"Iowa's Lucky Larry Dawson's case may suffer the same fate."

Dawson's circumstances are different (Dawson won legitimately), but his case will be heard by a different court and he's presumably not using the same lawyers as Massihzadeh.  Like Massihzadeh, he and the lottery both entered into the prize contract in the mistaken belief that the previous win had been legitimate and that Dawson was receiving the correct prize amount.

If the Colorado drawing could have been fraudulent in the first case, due to the fraud perpetrated by Tipton, then Massihzadeh was not necessarily entitled to win anything in the first place [b/c the winning numbers would not have been chosen but for fraud], and he should be thankful for the prize that he was allowed to claim.

Well, that's total BS.

Pay the man.

I'm a fan of claiming anonymously and/or creating a trust, but had Clifford Shaw been allowed to collect the jackpot prize on behalf of the Hexam Investments Trust, Massihzadeh, Dawson, nor Steve Bogle would know the drawings were rigged.

Was looking at the "report card" in several states the only true lottery drawing they offer are multi jurisdiction games like MM and PB. The Dakotas get a "B" (80% true lottery) because they only have one state RNG drawn game. And there are 17 other lotteries getting a "C" or "D" with no state true lottery drawings.

It's easy to understand why games like 5 Card Cash are RNGs drawings, probably 4 minute Keno and possibly All-or-Nothing too but after proving that RNG drawings can be rigged why are that many lotteries still using RNGs drawings?

"Dawson's circumstances are different"

Indeed and more so because Dawson claimed and collected his prize before Tipton's ticket expired. Should make for an interesting discussion next year.

Just a thought, but maybe Tipton hoped there would be multiple winning tickets on the drawing he rigged making collecting the winnings easier for Shaw and the trust. The fact they waited until the last minute using Shaw to collect for the trust makes one wonder how many other plans on how to collect or to let it go they discussed.

I'm not a moron and I disagree with your premise that the only reason he won is because Tipton rigged the drawing. What we do know is the drawing was rigged; what we don't know is what the winning numbers would have been if it was not rigged- despite overwhelming odds against it, there is still a possibility that Massihzadeh's numbers would have been drawn on that drawing and he would have been the sole winner given the other tickets were fraudulent.

This whole thing makes me think of Rhett Butler in the end of 'Gone with the Wind'.   My sentiments exactly.

Amir had better weigh his options, the longer he had these attorneys, the deeper they going to dig into his finances. The guy is 0-2, going to the State Supreme Court may not be “ 3rd time is a charm.” Dawson and Amir’s cases are different, but l still think Dawson has a semi uphill battle in getting paid out in millions more. Has anyone ever successfully sued a State lottery & won? Just asking.

noise-gate, correct me if I'm wrong.  Didn't your state lottery pay out millions to someone who could not produce the winning ticket?  That still irks me somewhat to this day.  Not sure if it was a lawsuit or not.

I agree 110%. When he signed the claim forms, he did not have full knowledge. You cannot waive  what you didn't know at the time nor was it forseeable.

l read about that situation here on LP BD, only after those CA lottery security guys were let go. Those guys had said that against their better judgment, the CA lottery paid a substantial amount to a player who did not produce a ticket. l have no idea how much that payout was for & did not research the thing. What l do know is that they refused to pay a guy who could not produce the winning ticket, although they agreed that it was him purchasing the ticket after reviewing surveillance footage. Double standards if you ask me.

The only way that happens, is probably if the governor is your Uncle or you have footage of a senior member of the lottery commission caught with a hooker behind a dumpster after midnight.

Please don't make me choke laughing @ your last sentence....that was classic!

The effect was exactly the same as any legitimate drawing; the numbers on the ticket had to match all the drawing numbers to win the jackpot. And the difference in that drawing was the other two ticket holders knew the outcome before the drawing.

officials determined the other two winning tickets that shared the same numbers as Massihzadeh's were fraudulent.

That may be the final outcome, but that wasn't true the day Massihzadeh signed and validated his ticket. Maybe they just don't want to say the drawing was fraudulent. And when you think about it, both lotteries actually (unknowingly) cheated the players because their employee rigged the drawing.

This is crazy. The supposed contract was signed under fraudulent conditions at no fault of the individual and he should not have to suffer from it.

I disagree with you KY Floyd. What we do know is that Tipton uploaded a program to the system which allowed him to determine the numbers on a certain day, but no where does it says the program he installed in any way, shape or form created a false set of numbers. It just says he knew what numbers were coming on a set date.

"no where does it says the program he installed in any way, shape or form created a false set of numbers."

If you read more you'll find a bunch of places that say exactly that. The reason that Tipton knew what numbers might be drawn is that he redirected the RNG from it's usual operation on those dates. Instead of using a random seed to generate random results his code swapped in his own seed. That did two things. It let him narrow the possible results from several million to a couple of hundred, and it changed the results from what they would have been if they had been generated from the random seed.

If the state lottery considered the numbers fraudulent, then they should not have paid any claims. However, since they did pay a claim and determined the other claims were tainted, then the other claimant deserved all the money.  The lottery never said the drawn numbers were invalid.  I am hoping for a successful appeal here.

Frankly l think Amir's situation is over & done with Floyd. I can't see the State Supreme court telling the lower courts that they were in error with their decisions. I think Amir played his hand & lost, such is life.

With Dawson, it is different, which is why l posted his case " may " end up the same. After all, the unclaimed prize money was distributed back to the other States. How does one go about telling those States to send the money back to Lucky Larry, who orders them, Dawson's attorneys?

"If you read more you'll find a bunch of places that say exactly that."

If Tipton created a "false set of numbers", how was it possible that Amir Massihzadeh matched Tipton's numbers and was paid his portion of the jackpot?

"and it changed the results from what they would have been if they had been generated from the random seed."

The odds of Amir matching Tipton's numbers were exactly the same as his odds against matching the numbers of any other drawing. And while it's true Tipton created a situation where playing his numbers were the only way anyone could win the jackpot, it's no different than the last four MM drawings when over 41 million tickets didn't match the jackpot winning numbers either.

Oh, and what's your definition of "a false set of numbers"?

At best, ten years later they found out the drawing was rigged, but it obviously didn't prevent Amir purchasing a ticket with the winning numbers.

He won what he won 14 years ago.  He could have used some of that money to win $4 million by now like some repeat lottery winners have done.  Did he squander it?  Or quit playing any other lottery games? How much is he paying his lawyers?

On May 25, 2013 there were three tickets winning a $50 million jackpot, but one of the tickets went unclaimed. On June 29, 2011 there was one winning ticket purchased in Georgia that when unclaimed too. 

Amir's case seemed stronger because the two other tickets were purchased knowing that Tipton rigged the drawing. But the court rule the lottery was "protected against any liability after the payment of any winnings." 

Dawson's case is similar to the unclaimed PB ticket from 2011 in that Dawson and Thomas Morris both won the next jackpot after a ticket went unclaimed and both collected before the unclaimed ticket expired. If Dawson wins based on the unclaimed ticket, lots of past jackpot winners will be looking for lawyers. 

Based on the appellate court decision, Lucky Larry might here "the lottery is protected against any liability after the payment of any winnings." too.

Dawson has no proof that the State " knew" that Tipton had rigged the game. He accepted his check & l think as far as the lottery is concerned, he got paid. For a State lottery to willingly allow a game to continue knowing full well it's been tainted with, is a crime.

I also think that there is no way that other States that participated in that particular game are going to pony up the money that larry feels should rightly be coming to him. He can try, but..

Off subject, but congratulations to the thousands of NC lottery players who played quads (zero) last night.   $7.8 million is the payout.

He wouldn't have won at all if it wasn't for Eddie Tipton.

"I can't see the State Supreme court telling the lower courts that they were in error with their decisions."

There's a reason we have higher courts to appeal to. Courts aren't reluctant to overturn cases when lower courts have made incorrect rulings on the law, so it depends on the arguments made by Massihzadeh's lawyers. If they didn't argue that the contract should be invalidated then the court wasn't considering that when it issued the ruling. OTOH, if his attorneys argued that the contract should be invalidated because both parties made the same mistake about the material issue of the legitimacy the court should have agreed, and I'd expect that aspect of the ruling to be overturned on appeal. I don't think it should change the ultimate outcome, but I don't know what arguments each side offered.

"I think Amir played his hand & lost"

He played his hand and won.

"The odds of Amir matching Tipton's numbers were exactly the same as his odds against matching the numbers of any other drawing. "

Not quite. The odds of Massihzadeh or anyone else playing the set of numbers that were drawn were the same as the odds of picking the set of numbers that would have won if Tipton hadn't changed the outcome.  There are n possible combinations so the odds of picking the winning combination will always be 1 in n  regardless of how a player picks their combination or how the winning combination is chosen, except when the person picking numbers has some insight into what combination will be drawn. Massihzadeh had no advantage at all when he chose the numbers and bought the ticket, but then the date of the drawing triggered Tipton's fraudulent selection of a winning combination and gave Massihzadeh (and anyone else who had played any of the other 199ish combinations that were still possible) an enormous advantage.

Of course none  of that matters to the lawsuit. The only question is whether or not Massihzadeh deserves the rest of the prize because the "winners" who collected 2/3 of it won as a result of fraud. If the fraud had been something that gave them a better chance of predicting the results of a legitimate drawing he would deserve the rest. In that case the drawing would have been legitimate and only the awarding of 2/3 of the prize to others would have been the result of fraud, but that's not what happened. What happened was that the drawing itself was fraudulent because the "winning" numbers were the result of Tipton's manipulation of the RNG. Massihzadeh was just an accidental beneficiary of the fraud. There's absolutely no legal (or ethical) justification for enriching him further just because he's the lucky guy who happened to play the numbers that Tipton caused to be drawn.

"If Dawson wins based on the unclaimed ticket, lots of past jackpot winners will be looking for lawyers. "

Apples and oranges. As far as we know, for every other unclaimed lottery prize there's a legitimate prize that hasn't been claimed by a rightful winner and that's vastly different from what happened in this case. Anyone else who won the first jackpot after a prize wasn't claimed or wasn't paid can go looking for a lawyer, but that doesn't mean they have a case.

"Dawson has no proof that the State " knew" that Tipton had rigged the game."

What matters is that he doesn't have proof that the prize money would have continued to roll over and become a part of the jackpot that he won. It's an absolute certainty that if the game hadn't been rigged the money that Tipton attempted to claim would have been paid out to somebody instead of being returned to the state lotteries, so there's definitely money that should be paid out to some player(s). As the first legitimate winner to come along I think he has a pretty good argument that at least part of the money should be paid to him, but there's no way to prove what the jackpot would have been. There's a chance that nobody would have won before him, but there's also a good chance that the bigger jackpot would have resulted in somebody winning shortly before him, resulting in his jackpot being much smaller.

His case is in a different jurisdiction, so the ruling in Massihzadeh's case is irrelevant. His lawyers should be arguing that any contract he signed in order to claim the prize is invalid, that he's the only winner of any prize money for the jackpot that he won and that he's entitled to collect the full amount of what that prize should have been instead of what the lottery mistakenly thought it was. Based on the mutual error about the legitimacy of previous drawings and the correct amount of the jackpot Dawson won I don't think the lottery has a valid argument that the outcome is determined by a contract barring future claims, but the lottery can definitely show what future sales would have been and determine the probability of somebody else winning and reducing his jackpot.

"For a State lottery to willingly allow a game to continue knowing full well it's been tainted with, is a crime."

If "it's been tainted" means that it is still dishonest it would be a crime, but as far as we know the lottery believes that they're running a game that's honest.

Good read Floyd- however l still think that once they got paid out, the issue was closed according to their State lotteries. As Stack said, if Dawson prevails with his case, it opens up a Pandora’s box across the nation.

What’s the old rule “ The house always wins.”

"Not quite. The odds of Massihzadeh or anyone else playing the set of numbers that were drawn were the same as the odds of picking the set of numbers that would have won if Tipton hadn't changed the outcome."

It was almost ten years before Massihzadeh found that a Colorado Lottery EMPLOYEE rigged the drawing and suied that lottery to get the share of that jackpot the Colorado Lottery paid Tipton and his brother. It looks like your missing the point because the numbers Tipton selected had the same chance of matching whatever numbers the RNG picked just like any QP had chance of matching either number. Just based on the article, Amir claimed he was the "only legitimate winner". but court ruled the contract he made by signing the ticket and the appelate court agreed.

"Apples and oranges. As far as we know, for every other unclaimed lottery prize there's a legitimate prize that hasn't been claimed by a rightful winner and that's vastly different from what happened in this case."

When any lottery terminal prints a ticket even if it's just the bar code, I'm pretty sure all those tickets are legitimate. The ticket was legitimate when Tipton bought it and when Shaw tried to validate it. Every ticket bought for that drawing was legitimate. Tipton rigged the drawing, but never created an illegitimate ticket.

And it looks like you're not aware of the fact MUSl declared the Tipton/Hexen  jackpot ticket an unclaimed prize and distrupted the prize money back to the partisipating states.

"If "it's been tainted" means that it is still dishonest it would be a crime, but as far as we know the lottery believes that they're running a game that's honest." 

What the lottery now believes is irrelevant because the game was discontinued in October 2017. And BTW, the D.C. Lottery pulled out of the game in 2016.

"the numbers Tipton selected had the same chance of matching"

The numbers that Tipton rigged had zero chance of matching the overwhelming majority of numbers picked by an RNG or by players. If Tipton hadn't eliminated the overwhelming majority of combinations he wouldn't have had any advantage because he'd have been playing against the same odds as layers who weren't cheating.  Still, feel free to explain why the odds matter when the drawing was rigged.

"Tipton rigged the drawing, but never created an illegitimate ticket."

Do you have a sensible point you're trying to make? The drawing was rigged, and that's what matters. Having a legitimate ticket doesn't mean anything when the drawing isn't legitimate. The lottery only paid out the jackpot because they didn't know that the drawing had been rigged. If you think that all of the tickets being legitimate is what's important why aren't the 2 winning tickets that Massihzadeh didn't have entitled to the 2/3 of the jackpot that Massihzadeh didn't get?  Either all legitimate tickets are entitled to a share of the jackpot despite the fraud or the fraud is what determines whether or not the tickets get a share of the jackpot. If the fraud means that the other two legitimate tickets aren't entitled to a share then neither is Massihzadeh's ticket. He benefited because Tipton rigged the drawing and the lottery didn't find out soon enough. That the lottery eventually found out that the other 2 winners shouldn't have been paid doesn't mean Massihzadeh should benefit even more.

"MUSl declared the Tipton/Hexen jackpot ticket an unclaimed prize"

So what? MUSL can spew as much BS as they want, but  none of it changes the facts. There was a legitimate jackpot but there wasn't a legitimate winner. The various lotteries are using that exact argument about other rigged drawings in an (ineffective) effort to have the prize money repaid. When there isn't a winner the rules require that the prize money rolls over. Either Dawson or some other player(s) should have benefited from that rollover.

"MUSl declared the Tipton/Hexen jackpot ticket an unclaimed prize"

You didn't include the rest of my sentence: "and distributed the prize money back to the participating states." Here's a hint, a sentence usually starts with a capitalized word and ends in a punctuation mark. I was stating a fact on where that prize money went.

"So what? MUSL can spew as much BS as they want, but  none of it changes the facts."

Like I said, it is a fact MUSL distributed the prize money back to the participating states. Do your facts show they didn't?

"There was a legitimate jackpot but there wasn't a legitimate winner."

And based on the rules and just like any other prize that goes unclaimed, the money was distributed among the participating states.

"When there isn't a winner the rules require that the prize money rolls over."

If you looked at the time line, you should clearly see that Dawson won his jackpot and collected his prize BEFORE the Tipton ticket expired.

the Court of Appeals affirmed the district court decision. In its published opinion, the court said a state statute makes it clear: The Colorado State Lottery Division is protected against any liability after the payment of any winnings.

Don't know how a Iowa court will rule, but I'm pretty sure the lottery lawyers noticed the Colorado decision.

"And based on the rules"

You've almost got it. There wasn't a legitimate winner, and when there's not a winner the rules say that the prize money rolls over.

"Dawson won his jackpot and collected his prize BEFORE the Tipton ticket expired."

Does that mean that you'd understand that the money from Tipton's jackpot should have been part of some other/future prize if the lottery found out about the fraud sooner? That they found out later doesn't matter.

"There wasn't a legitimate winner"

Can you show us where anybody in the lottery said the ticket that Shaw tried to validate was illegitimate? I can show you where Terry Rich said, "The jackpot from the rigged 2010 draw was ultimately not claimed and distributed among the sixteen states participating in the lottery".

Instead of creating terrible straw man arguments, you really ought to do some research.  On November 9, 2011, three months AFTER Dawson won, Philip Johnston to claim a ticket that had won the jackpot; stating he was too sick to claim the prize in person, and provided a 15-digit code that verified the winning ticket. They had video of someone purchasing the winning ticket and Johnson wasn't that person. On December 6, Johnston phoned again, stating the ticket was actually owned by an anonymous individuall. They would have wrote a check to Hexham trust, but first they still wanted to know who was the anonymous guy that actually bought the ticket.

"Does that mean that you'd understand that the money from Tipton's jackpot should have been part of some other/future prize if the lottery found out about the fraud sooner?"

It means exactly what it says: Dawson won his jackpot and collected his prize BEFORE the Tipton ticket expired. It doesn't matter what you think I understand; it's what the Iowa Lottery and MUSL did.

The store's surveillancevideo wasn't released until October 2014 so even if it showed Tipton wearing his lottery employee ID badge while buying the ticket it was long after Dawson collected his jackpot. But Dawson will get his day in court. Are you going to tell us that your crystal ball told you the outcome?

The more l read this article, the more l am convinced that the courts are having this case go forward simply to show the fairness in the justice system. However l come back to the point of “ How does the  Iowa State court order lottery commissions of other States to pay Dawson?” It’s not as though we talking about a dead beat Dad failing to pay child support in several States.I think interstate agencies do work on those issues, but lottery payouts?

Purchasing the ticket himself was the first dumb thing Tipton did. And how he tried to collect the winnings was even worse. It was one red flag after another.

If I'm reading the time line correctly, a judge ruled they would hear Dawson's case before the appellate court ruled on Amir's claim meaning it's possible the court will make the same ruling. Lucky Larry didn't know at the time, but he would have a much better case had he waited for Tipton's ticket to expire before claiming his prize. 

I doubt any Iowa state court has jurisdiction over lotteries in other states, but they could order the Iowa Lottery to pay up. And that would set a precedent and open the door for the next winner to make the same claim as Dawson; but only in Iowa.

One of MUSL and Iowa Lottery's arguments was paying Dawson would create a situation where they must hold up all prize payments until they could determine there was no fraud, draw fixing, or another Eddie Tipton was playing with the RNG computer. The judge didn't buy it.

Something to consider. Dawson is claiming the unclaimed "Tipton prize" should be his because he was the next winner. But what about all the people that didn't play the drawings after because the jackpot was low? 

Oh and let's say Dawson does win; will the other states pitch in and help out the Iowa Lottery?