Former lottery security employee guilty of rigging $14.3M drawing

Comment #29

mypiemaster — Mon, 27 Jul 2015 21:27:03 GMT

Yes you are!!! So said the jury.

Comment #28

KY Floyd — Thu, 23 Jul 2015 14:58:57 GMT

Maybe if he had a ringtone that said Phone call for MUSL employee Eddie Tipton , but other than that it would just be one more piece of evidence that doesn't really prove anything. OTOH, the prosecution claimed that his cell phone records showed that he wasn't in Texas, as he claimed. If he'd gotten a phone call anytime close to when the purchase was made they'd presumably have a record showing a connection to a cell tower close to the store. Of course even that still leaves room for reasonable... [ More ]

Comment #27

DELotteryPlyr — Thu, 23 Jul 2015 08:43:18 GMT

Ya know what would have been REALLY funny - if when he was at the counter buying the ticket and his phone rang and he had a REALLY unique ringtone that NO ONE uses and the video picked it up

Comment #26

noise-gate — Thu, 23 Jul 2015 05:02:38 GMT

Oh Yeah...

Comment #25

DELotteryPlyr — Thu, 23 Jul 2015 01:13:02 GMT

Then he could have used the line --- I am not the purchaser you are looking for' (while doing the Jedi armwave

Comment #24

pickone4me — Thu, 23 Jul 2015 00:00:44 GMT

How very interesting. I always wondered about how connected those lottery terminals are. They could rig it to where a certain set of numbers for a certain area, and it keeps rolling until the number matches for that area.

Comment #23

TnTicketlosers — Wed, 22 Jul 2015 11:03:58 GMT

Yes Sully they are all crooked,remember it's not for us,it's for the kids...Ive lost enough in Tennessee to college 10 kids..

Comment #22

noise-gate — Wed, 22 Jul 2015 05:37:52 GMT

There's going to be an appeal Sully. Lets see how that turns out...

Comment #21

sully16 — Wed, 22 Jul 2015 02:42:38 GMT

I think we will hear another story like this someday, glad he going to get punished.

Comment #20

Stack47 — Wed, 22 Jul 2015 02:37:02 GMT

Tipton had to know the rules required the identity of person purchasing the ticket and he was ineligible. I read a story about a guy who worked for the Nevada gaming commission that had access to the RNG Keno programs used by Vegas casinos and he used it to win a large jackpot in Atlantic City. His partner panicked when cashing the ticket and he spent 2 years in prison.

Comment #19

LottoMetro — Wed, 22 Jul 2015 01:53:19 GMT

I agree. Working at the lottery, on the inside, he KNEW all the security procedures the lottery goes through to validate tickets etc. You would have to be pretty dumb to buy the ticket knowing that lottery officials would check the store's video cameras. At the very least, he could have been creative and hired someone to buy and claim the ticket, then paid them a significant portion of the winnings. If in fact he pulled this off, it sounds like he didn't think it through very clearly, which is i... [ More ]

Comment #18

zinniagirl — Wed, 22 Jul 2015 01:48:14 GMT

Like your disguises but it is illegal here to enter a place of business with your face covered! Have to use stage makeup and wigs, oversized hats etc....

Comment #17

noise-gate — Wed, 22 Jul 2015 01:24:39 GMT

Tipton could have LITERALLY saved his hide by coming into the convenience store and purchasing his ticket dressed like either of these guys ..

..... using pre-filled out playslips, he could simply have put his money on the counter, got his tickets and walked out to his vehicle.

Comment #16

HoLeeKau — Tue, 21 Jul 2015 21:59:09 GMT

It sounds like he may have thought he disguised himself well enough to be unrecognizable. IIRC at least one of the witnesses didn't recognize him until he spoke. I wonder if he didn't realize that his voice was being recorded too? Most c-stores here only take video not audio.

If I were going to try to pull something like this off, I'd definitely do the whole thing myself including buying the ticket. The more people that know, the more likely it is someone will blab.

I watch a lot of true c... [ More ]

Comment #15

Stack47 — Tue, 21 Jul 2015 21:38:27 GMT

It makes no sense that Tipton bought the ticket taking a chance of he would be caught on camera, but the jury thought he did. Even Nick Perry had enough sense not to buy any tickets.

Comment #14

cbr$ — Tue, 21 Jul 2015 16:23:42 GMT

What I find fascinating about this is, Iowa Lottery CEO. Terry Rich said he is confident the games are fair. They have enhance their layer's of security. As long as the program for the rootkit's exist it is being improved and enhance as well. There are kit's/ programs that already exist right now. that are capabilities that can do this again or more, within a 50 mile range. I think Iowa new best friend, such be live draws.

Comment #13

Zebekyia — Tue, 21 Jul 2015 15:11:31 GMT

The problem I have with all of these people who are caught cheating is that the State/Corporation gets the money and not the people who were playing the game at the time. It's worse on Scratch-offs because if a jackpot is taken out of the game due to someone cheating the jackpot should be reinserted somewhere into the game which the players should have a shot at.

Comment #12

pickone4me — Tue, 21 Jul 2015 13:57:56 GMT

So what is the plan with RNG computer draw states

Comment #11

mypiemaster — Tue, 21 Jul 2015 12:21:12 GMT

I knew they were going to lay the smack down on him, just to send a loud and clear message, to anybody else contemplating on getting involved, in such nefarious activities. Guilty or not, I have my doubts.

Comment #10

darthfury78 — Tue, 21 Jul 2015 07:09:02 GMT

True. He should have gotten a person not associated with the Iowa Lotto to buy the tickets on his behalf. Once that person wins, they establish a Trust and split the money. When it comes to these scheme's, never get involved directly.

Comment #9

RedStang — Tue, 21 Jul 2015 05:09:19 GMT

Can't believe he bought the ticket himself. He was so close to hatching the perfect plan. Now he might make the Darwin top ten.

Comment #8

Stack47 — Tue, 21 Jul 2015 04:57:36 GMT

Rich said he is confident the games are fair. But only after a former lottery security employee was found guilty of rigging $14.3 million drawing.

Comment #7

SilverLion — Tue, 21 Jul 2015 04:45:04 GMT

Because they cant afford it!

Why would somebody who is authorized to manage a free tax, want to not skim? Do you know how much it costs to be honest? Do you know how much those fancy cameras cost? do you know how much Yolanda Vega gets paid?

Do you know how stupid our kids will get with real honest ball drawings

Comment #6

noise-gate — Tue, 21 Jul 2015 03:24:35 GMT

l guess it all boiled downed down to whether the jury accepted the evidence presented by Assistant Iowa Attorney General Rob Sand Terry Rich or that of Tipton's Attorney.lt appears they wanted to send a message they spoke loud and clear.

Comment #5

DELotteryPlyr — Mon, 20 Jul 2015 22:46:59 GMT

So this idiot got caught, how many out there have not?

Time to get rid of this easy to manipulate way of pulling the numbers.

Comment #4

lottobrain — Mon, 20 Jul 2015 22:32:48 GMT

The article says It's believed to be the first prosecution of a person accused of tampering with lottery equipment to manipulate a draw . However, this is not true. It happened twice in PA, back in 1980 with the famous triple 6's 3 digit draw and again in 1988 when a computer tech working for a lottery contractor programmed the a computer to print out a lottery ticket in a store where his friend worked for a $15.2 million lotto jackpot in the Super 7 drawing that was about to expire. The lottery... [ More ]

Comment #3

Feisty1 — Mon, 20 Jul 2015 19:45:54 GMT

Because in the meantime they're still not acknowledging that it WAS POSSIBLE to rig the drawing in the first place!!! And had it not been for the lack of planning on the how to cash the ticket side of the scheme ... they might have gotten away with it. We need to remember how they caught on in the first place ... I think the little so-called basic questions only came into play because out-of-state entities tried to cash the ticket.

It should be very interesting to see how these computerized d... [ More ]

Comment #2

TnTicketlosers — Mon, 20 Jul 2015 19:28:56 GMT

Why your at it,check all the states.

Comment #1

lothob — Mon, 20 Jul 2015 18:50:41 GMT

So CEO Rich; rather than just trying to improve layers of security to catch a crook, why not also just get rid of the RNG and move back to ball machines which are harder to manipulate than computers

Former lottery security employee guilty of rigging $14.3M drawing

Lottery Post — Mon, 20 Jul 2015 18:21:54 GMT

Jurors convicted a former Iowa lottery security official of two counts of fraud Monday for rigging a Hot Lotto drawing to win $14.3 million.

The jury's verdict came after three days of witness testimony last week in the case against Eddie Tipton, 52, who faces up to 10 years in prison. It's believed to be the first prosecution of a person accused of tampering with lottery equipment to manipulate a draw.

Tipton stared straight ahead with his hands folded as the verdict was read, showing no... [ More ]