The revelation of Eddie Tipton's actions had a profound impact on the US lottery system. Tipton was able to deceive the system not just once, but on five separate occasions, resulting in the theft of millions of dollars.
The illegal scheme began in December 2010, causing permanent damage to the reputation and trustworthiness of the lottery system.
Man defrauded winnings 5 times being dubbed USA's biggest lottery scam
Tipton's fraudulent activities first came to light when he was caught on CCTV purchasing a ticket for a staggering $16.5 million jackpot at a convenience store in Des Moines.
While the odds of winning the lottery are slim for most people, Tipton had significantly improved chances thanks to a cryptic computer code he created back in 2005.
This code allowed him to manipulate the selection of winning numbers, and he successfully did so in at least five different states.
The seriousness of Tipton's scheme became clear when the $16.5 million prize went unclaimed for nearly a year.
Tipton tried to receive the money through an anonymous offshore group in Belize, but Iowa's lottery regulations don't allow winners to stay anonymous.
As a result, authorities denied the claim, which led to an inquiry and ultimately resulted in Tipton being arrested.
Tipton faced charges of fraud for unlawfully participating in a lottery game as an employee of the organization responsible for the draws and then attempting to claim the prize through fraudulent means.
Remarkably, while rigging the lottery code, Tipton managed to win the jackpot on another occasion, and his brother in Colorado also experienced a significant win a decade earlier.
Furthermore, two other individuals unknowingly benefited from Tipton's tactics, solidifying his status as the orchestrator of the largest lottery scam in US history.
In 2015, Tipton was found guilty on both counts and sentenced to ten years in prison. However, in a surprising turn of events, he was granted early release in July 2022 following a successful parole appeal.
At first, Tipton was released from prison early for behaving well. However, his parole was temporarily revoked due to an undisclosed problem.
A subsequent review paved the way for his relocation to Texas through an offender supervision program.
Previously, an Australian citizen originally from Romania has clarified the mathematics that allowed him to win the lottery jackpot an astounding 14 times.
The man, an economist from Romania, developed a unique "number-picking algorithm" that he referred to as "combinatorial condensation."
By analyzing certain lottery draws, he realized that the cost of purchasing all possible ticket combinations was sometimes lower than the jackpot prize itself.
For instance, if a game required selecting six numbers from a range of 1 to 40, there would be a total of 3,838,380 possible number combinations. If the tickets cost $1.2 each and the jackpot was $12 million, he saw an opportunity for a significant profit.
Capitalizing on this insight, the man formed a syndicate with a group of friends and pooled their funds to purchase a large number of tickets, covering every possible combination.
To further optimize their chances, the man devised an automated system using printers and computers to generate tickets containing all possible number combinations.
The group of people working together, known as the syndicate, kept achieving success, winning 12 different lotteries and collecting a significant number of smaller prizes in both Australia and the UK.
This exceptional accomplishment attracted a lengthy legal conflict, resulting in investigations carried out by both the CIA and the FBI. Ultimately, the man had to declare bankruptcy in 1995.
