DES MOINES – The man accused of rigging the lottery in multiple states, including Iowa, has pleaded guilty in Polk County Court.
Updated Story:
It’s a case seven years in the making and it all ended right where it all began – in Iowa. Eddie Tipton pleaded guilty to the felony charge of ongoing criminal conduct Thursday morning for rigging the Hot Lotto here in Iowa back in 2010. His brother, Tommy Tipton, is also going to prison for 75 days. He is convicted of conspiracy to commit theft.
Tipton’s admission of guilt is part of a massive plea deal involving six states: Iowa, Wisconsin, Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas. And while it has been a long journey to this point, prosecutors and lottery officials say they are relieved to be near the end.
“Do you want to proceed with this guilty plea?” asked the judge Thursday morning. Eddie Tipton responded: “Yes, your honor.”
After years of claiming innocence, Eddie Tipton finally admitted Thursday to rigging lotteries in several states, including Iowa. And for the first time, in his own words, he explains how he did it.
“I wrote software that included code that allowed me to understand, or technically predict, winning numbers and I have those numbers to other individuals who then won the lottery and shared winnings with me,” Tipton said.
It is that admission of guilt that the Iowa lottery has been waiting for.
“In some ways you feel like this was our worst day, but in some ways it was our best day,” said Iowa Lottery spokesperson Mary Neubauer. “We wanted that validation that happened with today’s proceedings, but also just to learn as much as we possibly could from this entire situation, so that we could make improvements to our processes.”
One way the Iowa Lottery is doing that is by sitting down with Tipton to figure out how exactly he rigged the system. That process is reportedly underway, but details from that meeting will not be revealed until a later date.
And while the Iowa Lottery credits state officials for bringing this case to it’s conclusion, the Iowa Attorney General’s Office is actually thanking them.
“The reason that all these questions started being asked and the reason that got us here today is that they Iowa Lottery refused to pay out that ticket in 2011, when it was presented,” said Assistant Iowa Attorney General Rob Sand. “Were it not for the Iowa Lottery’s vigilance on that, we may not be here today.”
Eddie Tipton will have to pay $2.2 million in restitution to the other states involved in the scheme. But he did not act alone. He worked with his brother Tommy Tipton and long-time friend Robert Rhodes.
Last Friday, the Iowa Supreme Court overturned a previous conviction, but the multi-state plea deal trumps that decision. Tipton’s defense attorney, Dean Stowers, is frustrated with the plea deal, saying the normal court proceedings took too long.
“Disappointed really that we didn’t get a decision from the Iowa Supreme Court sooner, so that we could utilize it to get these current charged dismissed, because we’ve been arguing that they should be dismised for two years, Stowers said.
But the Iowa Attorney General’s Office and the Iowa Lottery are ready to wrap things up.
“It feels very good to be at a conclusion here, a successful conclusion,” Sand said.
“We wanted to know what happened here not only to protect the Iowa lottery but to protect the lottery industry as a whole,” Neubauer said.
Original Story:
Eddie Tipton, the former head of security for the Multi-State Lottery Association, admitted Thursday in Polk County Court that he created the code to rig the Iowa lottery, a process he confessed to doing in other states such as Colorado, Wisconsin and Kansas.
Tipton pleaded guilty in Wisconsin court June 12, which made public a six-state plea deal which Iowa is a part of. Tipton stated Thursday that he created software to rig the lottery, and after initially trying the software to see if it would work, he continued to use it.
Tipton pleaded guilty to one felony count of Ongoing Criminal Conduct, and his sentencing will be set for a later date. The maximum prison sentence for Tipton’s charge is 25 years, and Tipton would also be required to pay $2.2 million in restitution.
