5 times a lottery insider and his friends hit bogus jackpots
IOWA CITY, Iowa — Eddie Tipton, a former employee at the Multi-State Lottery Association, is accused of installing software on Random Number Generators that allowed him to predict winning combinations for drawings that occurred on three dates every non-leap year — Nov. 23, Dec. 29 and May 27. So far, he and his associates have been linked to winning tickets in five states between 2005 and 2011. Here are the details:
— Colorado: Nov. 23, 2005: Tipton’s brother Tommy Tipton, a Texas magistrate, buys the winning ticket for a $4.5 million Colorado Lotto jackpot. Two other winning tickets are sold, and investigators suspect one of them also is tied to the scheme. Tommy Tipton recruits a friend to claim his $568,900 cash payout, saying he wants to hide the winnings from his wife. The friend gets 10 per cent.
— Wisconsin: Dec. 29, 2007: Tipton’s friend Robert Rhodes, of Sugar Land, Texas, wins a $2 million Megabucks drawing in Wisconsin. He opts to take the $783,000 cash payout, which he splits with Eddie Tipton by delivering him briefcases full of cash when they visit each other in the coming months. Rhodes had a limited liability corporation claim the prize, which required him to sue the Wisconsin Lottery and get a court order. Rhodes later tells investigators that Eddie Tipton supplied him with note cards of the potential combinations to purchase.
— Kansas: Dec. 29, 2010: Tipton buys two winning tickets at convenience stores in Overland Park and Emporia for the Kansas 2by2 game. Each is worth $22,000. Tipton asks two friends to claim one ticket each, and they each give him back a portion of the payout. He tells one friend that her proceeds can be considered a gift for her recent engagement.
