Legal wheels turning after rigged Hot Lotto drawing uncovered
After months of investigation and legal wrangling, legal actions against two men accused of rigging a multi-state Hot Lotto computerized drawing are proceeding.
When Sugar Land, Texas, resident Robert C. Rhodes endorsed Eddie Tipton on the professional networking website LinkedIn, he deemed his friend and former business partner as someone "very focused on the bottom line" and someone he would work with again "in a second."
The two men both attended the University of Houston and worked together for seven years, until 2003, at Rhodes' Houston-based company, Systems Evolution, where Tipton was identified as the chief operations officer.
Now, more than 10 years later, the men are charged with trying to defraud a multi-state lottery organization of $16.5 million in a Hot Lotto game, a case that drew national attention as a mystery of sorts, when a man who claimed to be the winner contacted lottery officials, only to later say he was representing someone who wanted to remain anonymous.
(See BOMBSHELL: MUSL employee might have rigged Hot Lotto computerized drawing, Lottery Post, Apr. 13, 2015.)
Lottery officials balked at paying the amount, saying certain security criteria wasn't met and prosecutors later determined that the attempt was an inside job by Tipton, at the time the security director for the Multi-State Lottery Association, an Iowa-based group that operates state lotteries, including the Hot Lotto.
His former partner, Rhodes, was accused of being part of the plan. (See Texas man charged in Iowa lottery case contests extradition, Lottery Post, Apr. 20, 2015.)
Tipton, who lives in Norwalk, Iowa was charged with two counts of fraud, a class D felony. His trial is set for July 13.
Rhodes is charged with one count of forgery and one count of fraud, both class D felonies. He is in Texas, free on $10,000 bail. He has surrendered his passport. This week, he was scheduled to be in a Fort Bend County courtroom to contest extradition to Iowa. His next court date is on June 18.
Tipton's defense attorney, Dean Stowers, said one charge accuses his client of tampering with lottery equipment at the Multi-State Lottery Association, causing it to generate the winning numbers. The other charge accuses him of buying the ticket, which as an employee of the lottery, he is prohibited from doing.
"They refuse to specify exactly what they're claiming or exactly when they claim it happened," Stowers said, referring to the tampering allegation. "However, as best as we can tell, they're claiming that on November the 20th of 2010, five or six weeks before the December 29th, 2010 lottery try, he accessed the computer, or both of the computers that generate these numbers, the winning numbers, and somehow planted some kind of software on there that activated and generated the numbers, you know, five or six weeks later."
Rhodes' attorneys could not be reached for comment. In court documents filed with the Fort Bend District Clerk's office seeking a bail reduction - the bail was initially set at $500,000 - his attorneys said he has joint custody of three children, regularly pays child support and does not have a prior conviction.
Details of the charges against the men are outlined in affidavits filed in Polk County, Iowa.
The case involves a Hot Lotto ticket purchased at a Des Moines convenience store on Dec. 23, 2010. The purchase was recorded with video and audio.
Almost one year later, on Dec. 3, 2011, a Canadian man contacted lottery officials, telling them he was the winner. He provided some critical information, such as certain numbers on the ticket, but authorities became skeptical about his answers to other questions, including what he was wearing the day he bought the ticket. The man later said he was representing someone who wanted anonymity. A New York colleague of the Canadian man later met with lottery officials to try to claim the winning ticket, but also was denied.
The Canadian man later told authorities that Rhodes and a Houston attorney, two people he knew, contacted him in October 2011, seeking help with collecting the winnings. The New York attorney told authorities he knew the Houston attorney.
In October of last year, the lottery organization released the video of the ticket purchase and four days later a lottery employee told authorities the man in the image was Tipton.
When questioned by the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, Tipton said he was in Houston the day the ticket was bought, visiting relatives, according to the affidavit.
Cell phone records indicate he was in the Des Moines area on the date the ticket was purchased, according to the affidavit.
During that interview, Tipton did not bring up Rhodes' name.
Again citing cell phone records, authorities said records indicate frequent lengthy calls between Tipton and Rhodes, sometimes over an hour, including on the day the ticket was purchased, the affidavit states.
Stowers said Tipton does not match the identity of the person who purchased the ticket, and that there is evidence that it was not possible for his client to "tamper with the computers in any way" that would create the "scenario" the state says happened.
"He's looking forward to his trial when all of the speculation can come to an end, and all of the allegations that are being made can be brought forth in court if they have any merit to them, and the jury can make a decision on his case, because he's anxious to move on with his life," Stowers said.
At a January news conference, Iowa Lottery official Terry Rich said his organization believes this is the largest lottery jackpot to ever be claimed, only to "have that claim withdrawn."
"This truly is one of the strangest situations in the history of lotteries," Rich said.
Too bad the feds didn't outlaw RNG. This case gets weirder and weirder.
A lesson to be learned by those who supports computer generated RNG draws.
I really hope I'm not denied my winnings if I can't remember what I was wearing on the day I bought the winning ticket. I probably wouldn't even be able to say where I bought it so presenting a signed ticket better be enough for them.
How ridiculous is this!? I've always felt like anyone who creates an RNG will know exactly how it works and therefore can predict future results. It doesn't matter that there are "good people" working in or with the lotteries. They're no longer good once you find out they did something like this... The perceived image that all Commissions and others involved are trustworthy is complete crap. They're only ALLOWING/ENABLING things like this to happen by playing with RNG'S and ADM's. The ONLY way to have a fair drawing is to have a REAL drawing.
I was playing this game in Delaware, then thanks to LP found it was RNG and that was it.
I just don't play !
RNG = JDP
I would not be so sure about that, they do it here in NC everyday!
I wish this was getting more media attention so that Hot Lotto would feel pressured to go to ball drawings.
Didn't you ever wonder enough about the game to try and watch a live drawing? Games don't try to hide the fact that they use a RNG, in fact most try to dress them up and make them look like more fun than one of those ping pong ball machine.
Git 'em!
About time they started busting some cheats! I hope they get hard time in a pound me in the a$$ maximum security prison!
"They refuse to specify exactly what they're claiming or exactly when they claim it happened," Stowers said, referring to the tampering allegation. "However, as best as we can tell, they're claiming that on November the 20th of 2010, five or six weeks before the December 29th, 2010 lottery try, he accessed the computer, or both of the computers that generate these numbers, the winning numbers, and somehow planted some kind of software on there that activated and generated the numbers, you know, five or six weeks later."
The Hot Lotto people have a huge huge problem proving it's possible that Tipton rigged the drawing five or six weeks before and then actually rigged a lottery terminal to print the same numbers. And if they can, they are basically proving any RNG drawing can be rigged.
If you want to send the Hot Lotto people a message, stop playing their games.
I found this part in the story
Lottery officials balked at paying the amount, saying certain security criteria wasn't met and prosecutors later determined that the attempt was an inside job by Tipton, at the time the security director for the Multi-State Lottery Association, an Iowa-based group that operates state lotteries, including the Hot Lotto.
How many times have my haters called me derogative things ( it is not a conspiracy theory anymore, it is now a conspiracy fact! ) for even mentioning that the lottery can and maybe rigged.
What really sucks, is that wisconsin an RNG state, so if I want to play a lottery, I'd have to play MM or PB....I so much enjoy having that signature saying I don't play either one.
RJOh,
I almost never see a live drawing Xcept PA has theirs on just before jeopardy, but I never have PA tix.
Jersey's draw comes on a diff. channel @ 7:59 PM and I always forget, by the time they draw MM and PB I'm asleep.
I was in Delaware to buy PB and MM cause they are anonymous, and bought a 10 draw advance on HOTLOTTO on a whim,
then looked it up here on LP, that's when I realized my mistake.
I suppose you're right about them dressing it up, sounds like that would work on casual players and fools.
Which is why, I always ask for a recipt! This way, I dont have to remember where it is there.
"I suppose you're right about them dressing it up, sounds like that would work on casual players and fools."
As long as tickets are being sold they couldn't care less about who's buying them. Casual players, fools or anybody else, it doesn't matter.
This story probably explains best what happened before Tipton became a suspect. And this story before tells how bizarre it really was. It's only in the accusation stage and neither Tipton nor Rhodes were found guilty of any wrong doing. We'll find out how much real evidence they have against Rhodes after the Extradition hearing.
You can get receipts for lottery tickets? Not only did I not know that but no one has EVER asked me if I wanted a receipt. I thought the ticket itself was the receipt.
This is a classic case of why "winners" should not be allowed to remain anonymous.
Even though I am a big critic of lottery transparency, it does winners no good to be drug through the public spot light in this economy.
When claiming a lottery prize a receipt is no better than a play slip for proving you are the owner of a winning ticket. The ticket is your receipt and it has all the information needed to investigate its creditability.
I don't think winners need to be anonymous, but this case is completely irrelevant to the matter. This entire case came about precisely because the lottery was unable to determine the actual identity of the winner. Whether or not that information would have been released to the public has absolutely nothing to do with it.
Here in Idaho each ticket has the code for the machine it was bought from. Albertson's has 2 vending machines plus a terminal at the customer service counter, and each has a different code.
So when you do win and can't remember which store you purchased the ticket from, just go to each of your regular stores and buy a draw ticket (doesn't even have to be the same game) and look for numbers that match your winning ticket. Idaho has a string of 6 numbers, I imagine other states will have 6 - 8.
"The Hot Lotto people have a huge huge problem proving it's possible that Tipton rigged the drawing five or six weeks before and then actually rigged a lottery terminal to print the same numbers."
Any terminal can be made to print out any combination on a ticket by simple filling out a play slip, I do it all the time since I'm a system player.
What I don't understand is this being called a $16.5M Hot Lotto fraud case if $16.5M was the projected annuity pay out amount over thirty years. If this guy had gotten away with it and taken the actual cash amount after taxes it would have been less than half that amount.
Maybe I wrongly assumed it, but I thought the ticket was a QP when the NY Attorney tried to validate it on behalf of a trust. One would think because this is a criminal proceeding, the story should have all the important details.
"What I don't understand is this being called a $16.5M Hot Lotto fraud case"
For starters (according to this story), they can't even prove without reasonable doubt that Tipton bought the ticket or what if any was Rhodes involvement. Does it really make any sense for Tipton to buy a self pick, rig the RNG so those numbers will be drawn in "five to six weeks" with no plans on how to collect the winnings?
It could be something as simple as Tipton observing how seed numbers for the RNG was picked, something like a programmer debugging a game by using the same seed number each time so he can anticipate certain results. But if that's true then it would say MUSL was using a RNG that could have been written by a elementary school student to run a multi-million dollars lottery game.
They must have some facts that haven't been made public yet.