Lottery investigation adds Kansas to Iowa, three other states

DES MOINES - Court documents filed Monday in an alleged multistate conspiracy to tamper with lottery drawings indicate the criminal inquiry now involves six jackpots won in five states, adding Kansas to the list that previously included Iowa, Colorado, Wisconsin and Oklahoma.

Edward 'Eddie” Tipton, 52, who is appealing his felony theft conviction in a 2010 Iowa lottery scam, faces trial in January after subsequently being charged by Iowa authorities with ongoing criminal conduct alleging he and his associates might have been involved in prior rigged jackpot drawings in other states. The new charge is a Class B felony that carries a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison.

Tipton is accused of 'theft by deception,” Iowa Assistant Attorney General Robert Sand wrote in resisting a defense motion for dismissal. 'The expected evidence in this case will show that defendant or others associated with him claimed or attempted to claim lottery tickets that won jackpots in Colorado, Wisconsin, Iowa, Oklahoma, and two in Kansas all in amounts over $10,000.”

According to Monday's court filings, 'the claimants of those Kansas tickets, discovered weeks ago, will testify that half the funds they received were returned directly to defendant in cash in early 2011.”

Iowa authorities have alleged Tipton, a former security official with the Multi-State Lottery Association, tampered with 'manual play” lottery equipment to pick winning numbers that he and his accomplices could play in drawings with advance knowledge to collect jackpots in at least five states over a six-year period. Tipton's attorney has sought to dismiss the criminal complaint.

'This is one of the most complex and mysterious stories that I've ever been involved in,” Iowa Lottery CEO Terry Rich said Monday after Iowa Lottery Board members accepted a bid for a new random number generator drawing system that tied indirectly to changes made after the Hot Lotto fiasco.

In the Iowa case, prosecutors said Tipton tampered with lottery equipment by installing a self-deleting computer program that would enable him to manipulate the outcome of the Dec. 29, 2010, Hot Lotto drawing. As an employee of a lottery vendor, Tipton was prohibited from playing Iowa Lottery games when he bought the winning ticket at a Des Moines convenience store - a purchase that was caught on surveillance cameras and eventually led to his arrest and conviction.

Authorities later filed a criminal complaint in Polk County District Court alleging that Tipton tampered with 'manual play” lottery equipment to help his brother, Tommy Tipton, and associate Robert Rhodes win lottery jackpots - Tommy Tipton in Colorado in 2005 and Rhodes in Wisconsin in 2007. Authorities since have added a 2011 Hot Lotto jackpot claimed in Oklahoma and two smaller-game jackpots in Kansas in 2010 to the ongoing theft and money laundering allegations, according to court documents.