Former official found guilty of rigging lottery
DES MOINES, Iowa — A former lottery security official was found guilty Monday of rigging a computerized Hot Lotto game so he could win a $14 million jackpot then trying to get acquaintances to cash the prize for him without revealing his identity.
Prosecutors said Eddie Tipton inserted a stealth program into the computer that randomly picked the numbers then deleted it so it could not be detected. Although Tipton, 52, never got his hands on the winning total, he was charged with two counts of fraud.
Jurors found him guilty Monday after just five hours of deliberation. Tipton declined to comment after the verdict.
Iowa prosecutors allege Tipton bought the same numbers that he had programmed into the lottery computer earlier.
