Man Who Pleaded Guilty In Lottery Rigging Scandal Released After 5 Years In Prison

(Clarinda, IA) — State records show the man sentenced to 25 years in prison for rigging lottery jackpots in Iowa and at least four other states has been released after serving more than five years. Eddie Tipton was head of security at the Multi-state Lottery Association in Urbandale. He implanted computer code that manipulated the numbers for Hot Lotto jackpots worth at least 24 million in Iowa, Wisconsin, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Colorado. Iowa Lottery officials refused to pay a 2010 Hot Lotto jackpot to people who were trying to claim the money anonymously, and the scheme unraveled when a co-worker saw the video of a man in a hoodie buying the winning ticket and recognized Tipton. The Iowa Board of Parole approved Tipton’s early release in January, but his parole date was delayed after Tipton got into a fight in prison in February.