Crooked lottery director’s brother charged for role in number-rigging scam

Authorities in Iowa have filed charges against the brother of a former lottery security director after uncovering new evidence of their plot to fix lottery jackpots.

On Wednesday, Iowa prosecutors filed felony charges of ongoing criminal conduct against Tommy Tipton (pictured), the younger brother of Eddie Tipton, the former security director of the Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL). Tommy Tipton surrendered to authorities on Wednesday and was later released on a $25k bond.

The elder Tipton was convicted last year on two counts of fraud for rigging lottery drawings to produce a set of pre-programmed winning numbers. Tipton was found to have installed a ‘rootkit’ device on the MUSL’s random number generator that led to specific sets of numbers being generated for specific drawings.

Prosecutors had long suspected that Tommy Tipton, who was a justice of the peace in Texas until he abruptly resigned last year, was involved in the scam, given that he’d won a couple of lottery jackpots in Colorado and Oklahoma worth $1.2m. On each occasion, Tommy recruited a friend to claim the prize in exchange for a cut of the winnings.