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Iowa Computer Programmer Gets 25 Years For Lottery Scam (desmoinesregister.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Des Moines Register: Eddie Tipton, the Iowa brainpower behind a case of multi-state lottery fraud, will spend up to 25 years in prison for rigging "random" drawing jackpots. It's unknown how many years Tipton will actually spend in prison. He could be paroled within three or four years, his attorneys noted. Tipton, 54, was a longtime computer programmer in the Iowa offices of the Multi-State Lottery Association who installed software that allowed him to pick winning numbers in some of the nation's most popular lottery drawings. His scam began to unravel following unsuccessful attempts to anonymously collect a $16.5 million Hot Lotto ticket that was purchased at a Des Moines convenience store in 2010. "I certainly regret," Tipton said. "It's difficult even saying that. With all the people I know behind me that I hurt and I regret it. I'm sorry."
He did it with a computer. So, he should be found innocent!!! ...or something...
(Outside of deciding the break the law in the first place, of course)
I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
the ball based ones are harder to rig and easier to test for loaded balls. Not some software with an RGN that can be hacked or worked out due to it being buggy.
That's was my reaction. Take out just enough, in cash, that with your probably meager pay you're doing pretty well for yourself. Then I noticed where he's from: Iowa. If you lived in New York City you could cash a couple dozen lottery tickets a week an never visit the same lottery agent twice, but if you lived in Cedar Rapids you'd get noticed eventually.
Still, trying to take out over a million bucks is crazy. In most states you can't take a large lottery prize anonymously, which he should have known.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
you only get to hear about the ones they discover though. Maybe the ball tampering they detect isn't the first occurrence
Nullius in verba
1) This is why the names of lottery winners are made public. There may be an exception or two, but the vast majority of states require the person's name to be made known.
2) In Pennsylvania, it is illegal for employees of the Lottery Commission, and their immediate families, to play any lottery games, even the small(er) daily drawings and scratch off tickets.
Sure, he could have given the big prize to someone else to collect, but then he'd either have to split it or risk the person keeping it all because he couldn't say anything.
I thought this is why they have the video of people pulling the ping pong balls out of hoppers. I know at least Powerball (which is a MUSL lottery, same as where this guy worked), operates that way. It could still be scammed, but it requires physical access to tamper with the balls.
If a computer is picking the numbers it seems like a conflict of interest since the list of known printed tickets could also be interfaced with the computer.
I was thinking that too. He scammed a company who makes its business by taxing the weak and stupid. Then a government who taxes them gets pissy because even though they would still get their cut, it might hurt future earnings from their voluntary stupid tax.
These people glorify gambling in the eyes of children everywhere with billboards and commercials that look more like they're advertising Chuck'e Cheese than a addictive drug with almost zero (by almost zero, I mean zero... it's designed like that) chance of coming out ahead of where they started. The only reason there is a winner... ever is that they need to reel the suckers in.
Historically, whenever I've wanted to call someone stupid and embarrass them publicly, I ask them "What's your lotto numbers" and when they respond, I say "I don't know what's worse... that you're the type of person that plays lotto or that you think that by choosing your numbers it will increase your odds"
There's a difference.
Killing someone or popping off a minimart isn't cheating the government out of taxes.
Rigging the lottery could impact lotto ticket sales which could cost the government millions in lost revenue from taking advantage of the poor and the weak.
Publicly flailing this guy for messing with the system builds confidence in the people that the government is out to protect their interests and guarantee their 1 in 292,201,338 (powerball) or as they say "The overall odds of winning a prize are 1 in 17.22" which means that since the vast majority of prizes is the cost of your ticket back, you would have to spend $17.22 to win $1.
I can't find ANYPLACE that explains Iowa State's Megamillions game play or odds. If they are similar to most others, then it's probably something like 1 in 7.1 million odds. The break-even chances are probably in the ballpark of 1 in 15 overall.
So that being said... the only people who would ever play this are people who are simply too stupid to figure out that that $5 a week they spend is really $260 a year or $5200 every 20 years which is a luxury cruise for two plus airfare when you retire. So, after 50 years of work, you can be guaranteed at least a little bit of the rich life... or you can pay the stupid tax and wonder why when you retire that you can't do those nice things.
The government will always punish harshly anyone who threatens their ability to tax the stupid.
Historically, whenever I've wanted to call someone stupid and embarrass them publicly, I ask them "What's your lotto numbers" and when they respond, I say "I don't know what's worse... that you're the type of person that plays lotto or that you think that by choosing your numbers it will increase your odds"
Although choosing your numbers won't increase your odds, it can improve the expectation value of your winnings (if you win a shared prize). For example, since many people choose numbers that have to do with dates, by picking random numbers that cannot be dates will decrease your expected loss value of playing the lottery. Doing this exercise once making them your "lotto number" is an efficient way to get this small improvement...
Anyhow, you can now return to your standard mocking program...
The balls can be manipulated in a lot more ways than loading them. Imperfect roundness, surface tension, expandability with temperature changes, vibration when exposed to ultrasounds
More difficult to do discretely. Even if you work in a position where you have access to the drawing machine and the balls, it's a lot more likely that some coworker notices you swapping balls with doctored balls. Not to mention the need to have them manufactured in such a way that they look exactly like the real balls. No off color, off smell, off sound when they bump, etc. And don't think about going to the same manufacturer as the original balls, he'd likely mention the strange order to your employer.
- there are so many ways that are very hard to detect that may skew the odds of some balls being picked more often than others.
... and this will show up on some simple statistical analysis.
Whereas by manipulating a computer-based PRNG, you could manipulate the numbers in such a way that not one number is more frequent than others, but that you could still calculate it if you knew the right formula.
So that being said... the only people who would ever play this are people who are simply too stupid to figure out that that $5 a week they spend is really $260 a year or $5200 every 20 years which is a luxury cruise for two plus airfare when you retire. So, after 50 years of work, you can be guaranteed at least a little bit of the rich life... or you can pay the stupid tax and wonder why when you retire that you can't do those nice things.
I think you're leaving out the desperation factor. If you know for a fact the wealth you need to do anything substantial with your life is based on chance encounters, who you know and how well you can sell out others without getting caught and you have a reasonable assessment of your life while not being born into a billionaire family, you know that's not you. It's a case of 0% chance of ever achieving anything of note vs a 1-in-a-few-hundred-million chance. The lottery is infinitely better odds than zero.
You make a good point. The Pennsylvania Lottery has a cute puppet mascot, Gus, the "Second Most Famous Groundhog in Pennsylvania." He even has his own catchphrase, "keep on scratchin'". If he were working for a tobacco company, the lawsuits would have started flying immediately.
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.