Iowa Lottery Scam: Mastermind Sentenced To Prison

WEST DES MOINES, IA — The mastermind behind a years-long, multi-state lottery rigging scandal was sentenced Tuesday to spend up to 25 years in prison, but media outlets reported he could get out within a few years.

Eddie Tipton pleaded guilty earlier this summer to ongoing criminal conduct for manipulating a computer program to allow him to select the winning numbers in several lottery games over six years.

Tipton was also ordered to pay back more than $2 million that Tipton and others made off with in the scam.

Tipton's brother, Tommy Tipton, is serving a 75-day jail sentence for theft. A friend of Eddie Tipton's, Robert Rhodes, of Sugar Land, Texas, will be sentenced Aug. 25 on a computer crime charge. (For more information on the lottery scam and other West Des Moines stories, subscribe to Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

Tipton worked for the Multi-State Lottery Association in Iowa. He fixed lottery games in Colorado, Wisconsin, Kansas, Iowa and Oklahoma between 2005 and 2011.

The Des Moines Register reported that Tipton could be paroled within three or four years.

Photo credit: Charlie Neibergall/Associated Press