Is the Powerball rigged? Here’s two stories that will make you question the lottery.
Growing up as a kid my family did not have the luxury of affording the finest things in life. My mother was an Elementary School teacher and my dad had to retire due to illness. In turn, my mother and father would sit by the kitchen table sitting around the “lucky” lottery numbers and scratch offs to discuss what they will do “when” they won the lottery. That day would never happen. My dad would pass away due to an undiagnosed cancer and my mother was left to foot the bill by selling her jewelry to pay for his medications. But, my story is not alone. Millions of families across the country are counting their pennies, writing down their wish list, and imagining and planning what they would do if they win the $1.3 billion Powerball. But, what if I told you one man rigged the Powerball lottery to win over a million dollars?
“Biggest jackpot in the history of the world. Absolutely confirmed,”
The Powerball lottery has grown to a massive $1.3 billion. “Biggest jackpot in the history of the world. Absolutely confirmed,” Gary Grief, executive director of the Texas Lottery, which is part of the Multi-State Lottery Association that runs the Powerball, told the AP. But, behind closed doors the Association is dealing with a multi-state jackpot rigging scandal that has forced the man who has run the Powerball game for nearly 30 years to be placed on indefinite administrative leave.
The Lottery Jackpot-Rigging scandal
According to a Washington Post article from five years ago, the Powerball lottery was rigged.
From the Washington Post:
In December 2010, a man walked into a Quik Trip convenience store on Des Moines’ north side and bought what would become the winning ticket in a Hot Lotto draw with a $16.5 million jackpot, according to court documents.
The prize was unclaimed for nearly a year. In November 2011, a Canadian man contacted the Iowa Lottery claiming to be the winner. A month later, he said he was not the winner himself, but represented the anonymous winner. Later that month, a New York lawyer came forward to claim the prize for a Belize-based trust. No one involved could provide the basic details of the winner, information required by Iowa law. Eventually, the attorney withdrew the claim to the jackpot and the money went back to the states where the tickets were sold.
Before he was sentenced he helped his brother and a friend win more than $1.3 million in the lottery.
The winner ended up being Eddie Tipton, the Multi-State Lottery Association’s information security director. He was fired, and arrested in January 2015. In fact, the Des Moines Register points out that he was convicted of two counts of fraud, and was sentenced to 10 years in prison but, before he was sentenced he helped his brother and a friend win more than $1.3 million in the lottery. According to the Register, he was accused of rigging a lottery computer.
“It’s financial crimes where you can deter other people from committing similar crimes,” Assistant Iowa Attorney General Rob Sand said during the December sentencing hearing. “This isn’t someone who got drunk in a bar and decided to assault someone. This isn’t someone who committed a single act that they later thought better of…It is calculating decisions made one after another, according to plan, in order to attempt to defraud the Iowa Lottery.”
“It is calculating decisions made one after another, according to plan, in order to attempt to defraud the Iowa Lottery.”
In October, Charles Strutt, the executive director since the Multi-State Lottery Association, which runs the Powerball game, was removed from his job.
According to the Associated Press:
Strutt, 63, retains support among some board members and hopes to return to his position when the Tipton case concludes, said Dawn Nettles, a Texas-based lottery watchdog who said she spoke with Strutt about his leave in October.
“The truth is, the lotteries voted Chuck out. They’re holding him accountable for the actions of that security guy,” Nettles said. “But they don’t want anybody to know.”
Strutt was its first employee when six states formed the association to offer the nation’s first multi-state game, Lotto America. The group launched Powerball in 1992, and the game has since generated some of the world’s largest jackpots and billions of dollars in revenue for 44 states that now participate. Strutt also helped establish the association’s other games, which collectively surpass $5 billion in annual sales. He earned $322,000 in compensation in 2013.
