Lottery Scam Mastermind Apologies For His Actions
Before being sentenced to 25 years in prison, Eddy Tipton apologies in front of the court for his actions. The computer program that a former lottery security official used to rig drawings worth millions of dollars in Iowa and other states was more expansive than investigators first discovered, court records filed last week show.
‘I Regret It’
Eddie Tipton, a former employee of the Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL) in Clive, wrote the code to allow him to predict the randomly drawn numbers of multimillion-dollar jackpots in as many as 17 states and claim the cash prizes.
The code remained active and undetected for almost a decade before Iowa officials in 2015 discovered Tipton’s scheme. It allowed Tipton and his accomplices to defraud the system on specific days each year, which investigators initially believed were Nov. 23 and Dec. 29.
But an independent security audit revealed at least one more date was written into Tipton’s code for picking the winning numbers: May 27.
Tipton was sentenced up to 25 years in prison for rigging lotteries in Iowa, Colorado, Wisconsin, Kansas, and Oklahoma. Prosecuted did not take place for rigging drawings on any May 27 dates.
He told investigators that they had identified all the fraudulent wins associated with his scheme.
Helping Out Family
His brother, Tommy Tipton, told investigators something different. Furthermore, Tommy acknowledged being part of Eddy’s $4.5 million rigged jackpot win in Colorado, 2005. Eddie gave him numbers for at least two other drawings that he tried to use to win jackpots. But he didn’t win.
The additional May 27 window means there are probably more potential fraud cases.
The Multi-State Lottery hired SeNet in 2015 to help perform a security evaluation following Tipton’s arrest.
Owned and operated by its 36 member lotteries, MUSL is a non-profit, government-benefit association headquartered in Clive.
It provides security, information technology and draw services to its members.
MUSL is refusing to make SeNet’s evaluation available in a civil case in which Larry Dawson of Webster City, Iowa, contends that his jackpot was smaller than it should have been as a result of Tipton’s fraudulent win.
In a separate case, Dale Culler is additionally seeking a class-action lawsuit. This is on behalf of all players cheated out of lottery wins by Tipton’s manipulated drawings.
Teitelman made the comments about the newly discovered third rigged date. This was during a Def Con 25 Hacker conference called “Backdooring the Lottery and Other Security Tales from Gaming.” Dawson’s lawyer cited his presentation last week.
“This is just known cases of fraud,” Teitelman said. “There are probably more, especially since we found a third date in the code itself.”
