Lottery Jackpot Thieves Pull “The Ultimate 21st Century Inside Job”

Picture this: You’re the guy who builds built computers for lottery states that can generate random numbers for lottery drawings. Let’s say you see an opportunity unfolding as you build the computers. You realize you can secretly install a code that directs the computers to use a predictable formula that picks select numbers on certain lottery drawing days. You get a couple of friends that want to make some money, and you give them the numbers that will be winners in certain states on a specific day. When the numbers hit, your friends collect the money, and there’s a three-way split. Sounds like a plan for the likes of Raymond Reddington, or some computer geek with empty pockets. Right?

But, as strange as it sounds in a naïve sort of way, a dude by the name of Eddie Tipton, his brother, Tommy, and Tommy’s lawyer friends threw the Colorado Lottery Commission for a loop, and into a pool of lawsuits, when that number-fixing plan became reality. Eddie Tipton is the former Multi-State Lottery Association information security director, and his plan to cheat the Colorado Lottery did feel pretty good to him at first. But like all good things, Eddie overdid it. When the Lottery Commission caught on, Eddie took the blame for pulling off the ultimate 21sy century inside job.

Eddie Tipton is behind bars for the next 25 years, and the Colorado Lottery Commission may be in court that long to defend all the lawsuits resulting from that ultimate inside job. One of Eddie’s jackpots had a legitimate winner, and the man who split the money with Eddie and his friends wants all the money now. The man took home $4.8 million because of the three-way split. He wants the other $9.6 million Eddie and his friends put in the bank. But the Lottery Commissions says those numbers are bogus numbers because of Eddie, so they are fighting that lawsuit.

Thousands of people bought lottery tickets on the days Eddie had his numbers picked, and they want refunds. That will cost the Lottery millions if they lose that class-action lawsuit. Plus, an Iowa jackpot winner is suing, because he thinks his jackpot win should be bigger. A man who won a 2011 drawing, and put $14 million, less taxes, in his bank account thinks that amount should have rolled over.

Tommy says he doesn’t have his share of the money. Tommy’s lawyer friends stole the winning numbers from him and they won, not him.