Tommy Tipton Polk County booking photo.
The brother of a man convicted of rigging an Iowa Hot Lotto jackpot has turned himself in on a charge connected to the scam.
Fifty-one-year-old Tommy Tipton reported to the Polk County Jail this morning and was released on a $25,000 bond. Investigators charged Tipton with ongoing criminal conduct in connection with an alleged criminal network that won rigged lottery jackpots in Iowa, Colorado, Oklahoma, Kansas and Wisconsin.
Iowa DCI Assistant Director Dave Jobes says investigators in Wisconsin helped by going over the computer that was used to generate the numbers for the drawing there.
“They had some forensic examination done, which is what revealed this additional information,” Jobes says. The complaint filed against Tommy Tipton says Wisconsin investigators found the random number generator used for a December 2011 winning ticket in Wisconsin was never erased or destroyed. They found code that was set for certain numbers and days that Tommy Tipton would know.
Jobes says that was important information. “Yes, that did help us out considerably,” Jobes says. Tommy’s brother Eddie was one of the people who built the computer. Eddie Tipton was the information security director for the Multi-State Lottery Association and was convicted by a jury of fraud charges in July of last year for manipulating the numbers and trying to collect the Iowa jackpot in 2011. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Jobes says it has taken a lot of work between the five states to link everything together. He says Iowa has had a good experience with the states working together and sharing information. Jobes says there are not any other charges pending at this time. “It’s an ongoing investigation and we will continue to evaluate information and discuss it with our prosecutors,” according to Jobes.
Tommy Tipton had been a Justice of the Peace in Texas. A tip called into investigators led them to link Tipton to a rigged drawing in Colorado, and that led to the link between his brother and the drawings in Iowa and other states.
Here are some previous stories on this case:
Prosecutor, Iowa Lottery official talk about Hot Lotto verdict
Man arrested in mystery Hot Lotto ticket case
DCI releases store video in Hot Lotto jackpot mystery
Mystery surrounding winning Hot Lotto ticket deepens