Ex-lottery official sent to prison for trying to rig win

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A former lottery security official has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for rigging a computerized Hot Lotto game in 2010 in an attempt to win a $14 million jackpot.

Eddie Tipton, 52, never got any of the money, but a jury convicted him in July on two counts of fraud. He also was accused of trying to get acquaintances to cash the prize for him without revealing his identity.

Prosecutors said Tipton inserted a stealth program into the computer that randomly picked the numbers, then deleted it so it could not be detected.

Judge Jeffrey Farrell told Tipton during his recent sentencing hearing that his violation of trust was the biggest factor in him receiving the maximum sentence on each count.

Farrell noted that Tipton’s job was to ensure the lottery wasn’t breached and that no one cheated the game.

Tipton, of Norwalk, had been working for the Des Moines-based Multi-State Lottery Association since 2003 and was promoted to information security director in 2013.

As an employee, he was prohibited from playing the lottery in Iowa.

Surveillance video from a Des Moines convenience store shows a hooded man buying the winning Hot Lotto ticket in December 2010.

Several of Tipton’s former coworkers and friends testified at trial that the man in the video was Tipton. His sister and two brothers testified it wasn’t him.