The man who rigged the lottery
<p>A lottery computer programmer charged with using his inside knowledge to win rigged games across the US has pleaded guilty to fixing a 2007 jackpot in Wisconsin - his first admission of guilt in a scandal that rocked the industry.</p>
<p>Eddie Tipton entered the guilty plea to one count of theft and one count of a computer crime in a courtroom in Madison, after insisting on his innocence since his arrest in 2015.</p>
<p>He's set to be sentenced on September 21.</p>
<p>Tipton was security director for the Multi-State Lottery Association, where he wrote and installed code for software that picked random numbers for games sold by member lotteries.</p>
<p>Investigators say Tipton designed his software so that on three days out of the year, he could predict the winning numbers.</p>
<p>Tipton; his best friend, Texas businessman Robert Rhodes; and his brother, former Texas Judge Tommy Tipton, then bought winning numbers for those drawings and split the jackpots, authorities say.</p>
<p>Prosecutors say trio has been linked to winning tickets worth millions between 2005 and 2011 in Colorado, Wisconsin, Iowa, Kansas and Oklahoma.</p>
<p>The alleged scheme unravelled after Tipton was caught on surveillance video buying a winning US$16 million Hot Lotto ticket in December 2010 in Iowa that others would unsuccessfully try to cash a year later.</p>
<p>Tipton's guilty plea in Wisconsin came after Rhodes told investigators there in detail how the scheme worked for a US$783,000 Megabucks jackpot they won in 2007.</p>
<p>Rhodes pleaded guilty earlier this year to his role and pledged to testify against Tipton in Wisconsin and Iowa under plea agreements.</p>
<p>Rhodes told investigators that he visited Tipton at his Iowa home in December 2007. Tipton gave him index cards containing a series of numbers for him to play for the upcoming drawing.</p>
<p>Rhodes drove to Wisconsin in a rental car, buying tickets from various stores in the southwestern part of the state, before driving back to Iowa and returning to Texas. Rhodes then used a limited liability company to claim the prize in Wisconsin.</p>
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<p><em>Written by Ryan J. Foley And Todd Richmond. First appeared on <a href="http://www.stuff.co.nz/" target="_blank"><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Stuff.co.nz</span></strong></a>. </em></p>
