ECONOMY & WORK
MONEY 101
NEWS
PERSONAL FINANCE
NET WORTH
About Us Contact Us Privacy Policy Terms of Use DMCA Opt-out of personalized ads
© Copyright 2023 Market Realist. Market Realist is a registered trademark. All Rights Reserved. People may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.
MARKETREALIST.COM / NEWS

The Man Behind USA's Biggest Lottery Scam Who Successfully Rigged the Draw 5 Times

Tipton was convicted back in 2015 after he rigged a $14.3 million drawing of MUSL's lottery game Hot Lotto.
PUBLISHED NOV 28, 2023
Cover Image Source: Pexels | Waldemar
Cover Image Source: Pexels | Waldemar

The Hot Lotto Fraud scandal which was a lottery rigging scandal was finally out in the open after the mastermind Eddie Raymond Tipton who was the former information security director of the Multi-State Lottery Association confessed to planning and executing the entire scandal. Tipton was convicted back in 2015 after he rigged a $14.3 million drawing of MUSL's lottery game Hot Lotto. He later confessed to conducting the fraud in states like Colorado, Wisconsin, Kansas, and Oklahoma. He and his brother were later accused of rigging other lottery drawings, dating back as far as 2005, as per DM Register.



 

The scheme was first captured on CCTV footage of purchasing a ticket for a $16.5 million jackpot at a Des Moines convenience store.

Tipton chalked out a plan and with it, he improved the chance of winning the massive jackpot. In 2005, he came up with a cryptic computer code that allowed him to massively slim the odds of choosing winning numbers. According to court records, he did this in at least five different states as mentioned.

In one such case, a $16.5 million prize was unclaimed for nearly a year until Tipton tried to claim the jackpot on behalf of an anonymous. The state had rules that winners cannot remain anonymous and therefore his request was rejected by the officials.

Later CCTV footage showed him buying the tickets. This led to his arrest on two counts of fraud for attempting to illegally participate in a lottery game as an employee of the organization.

Pexels | Tara Winstead
Pexels | Tara Winstead

His trial began in April 2015. There was suspicion that Tipton had attempted to claim the tickets. Prosecutors alleged that he had rigged the entire Hot Lotto draw on December 29, 2010. Hot Lotto was conducted using a random number generator running on a computer in MUSL's Des Moines facility.

The computer was in a locked glass room and was accessible by only two people at the time. One of them was Tipton who was let into the room to change the time on the draw counter so that it would reflect daylight saving time. It was alleged that while he was in the room he used a USB flash drive to install a self-destructing virus in the system. 

Pexels | Anna Shvets
Pexels | Anna Shvets

Lottery investigators said that there were at least three more instances where Tipton rigged the system. In November of 2005, he along with his brother won a $568,990 jackpot prize share in a Colorado Lottery drawing, he was also one of the people who constructed Colorado's random number generator. Again in 2007, he won  $783,257 in a Wisconsin Lottery.

Again in 2011, he won $1.2 million. The money was transferred to  Kyle Conn, an owner of a construction company in Texas. However, prosecutors say that even this money was somehow linked with Tipton. 



 

Tipton was first convicted in 2015 and was found guilty of two counts of fraud. He was sentenced to ten years of imprisonment but remained free on bond pending an appeal. In 2017, Tipton confessed in court to having installed the rigging malware.

"I wrote software that included code that allowed me to technically predict winning numbers and I gave those numbers to other individuals who then won the lottery and shared those winnings with me," he said at the time.

He also confessed about fixing lotteries in Colorado, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, and Kansas as well as Iowa. He was then sentenced to 25 years in prison but his attorneys claim that he could receive parole in three to four years. Along with this, he was also "ordered" to pay about $3 million in restitution.

MORE ON MARKET REALIST
The player also brought his wife on the stage to cheer him as he played for a hefty prize.
4 hours ago
He also displayed the same expertise and ease to bounce back while solving puzzles.
23 hours ago
Carey was working with the contestant all along telling him to go higher and lower.
1 day ago
The round features four players bidding for items on the stage; however, not all of them get picked to enter the final games.
1 day ago
The co-founders of Bubbly Blaster made a clean pitch and bagged an easy deal from two Sharks.
1 day ago
The host himself and models on the show have been involved in such gaffes from time to time.
1 day ago
The guest who inherited a Fern Coppedge painting from her grandfather was blown away by its true value.
1 day ago
Harvey has also admitted that he is unable to recall names on his own show.
2 days ago
The comments didn't go down well with the rest of the panel and they didn't hold back.
2 days ago
The statue even triggered a bidding war when it went up for auction at Sotheby's.
2 days ago
The player who made his second appearance on the show did not let his excitement die.
2 days ago
The expert also shared tips on preserving the lampshade's value while transporting it.
3 days ago
Steve Harvey had to ask the contestant twice to make sure he got it right.
3 days ago
The guest who estimated it to be worth $5,000 got the shock of her lifetime.
3 days ago
As George Gray said, those wedding cans would look great hanging off her new car.
3 days ago
White was pitted against two other beautiful women, Summer Bartholomew, who was Miss USA 1975, and model Vicki McCarty, her friend.
4 days ago
The founder also went on to write an opinion piece slamming the shark for her behavior.
4 days ago
The pastor covered his mic and whispered something in Harvey's ear, making him awkward.
4 days ago
While the monetary value of the item was high for the expert, for the guest, the item was priceless.
4 days ago
The contestant kept trying to reassure Harvey as he tried to collect his thoughts.
4 days ago