Lotto 'jackpot fix' code

The Multi-State Lottery's former IT security boss Eddie Tipton smuggled code onto lotto machines that allowed him to predict the numbers drawn on certain days of the month.

That's according to investigators in Iowa this week. In July, Tipton was found guilty of fraud in the US state, and was sent down for ten years, for installing malware on lottery computers. That software nasty allowed him to know which numbers were coming up and buy a $16.5m winning ticket. He's now awaiting trial in Colorado, Wisconsin, Oklahoma and Kansas on charges relating to lottery rigging.

According to newly obtained forensic evidence, he embedded code that ruined the random number generator on certain days of the month. According to the Associated Press:

A forensic examination found that the generator had code that was installed after the machine had been audited by a security firm that directed the generator not to produce random numbers on three particular days of the year if two other conditions were met. Numbers on those days would be drawn by an algorithm that Tipton could predict, Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation agent Don Smith wrote in an affidavit.

Prosecutors have also charged the ex-boss's younger brother, Tommy Tipton, a former justice of the peace and reserve police officer in Texas. Tommy is accused of netting $1.2m in cash by nobbling lottery draws in Colorado and Oklahoma. ®