Remember last fall, when lottery officials were trying to locate the mysterious man who bought the winning ticket in the multi-state Hot Lotto game? That situation was strange enough, with the winner or winners trying to remain anonymous and waiting a very long time to come forward. Now the situation has become even weirder, with the lottery’s former security director accused of winning the game fraudulently.

As the security director for the Multi-State Lottery Association, which runs the Hot Lotto, Eddie Raymond Tipton wasn’t supposed to be playing the lottery at all. That’s why the man in the video was wearing a hat and hood to conceal his identity but still not look out of place during a Midwestern winter. Prosecutors believe that Tipton was the person who bought the ticket, but a man from Texas has also been arrested and charged with fraud.

That would also explain why the man tried to win without revealing his identity, but how do you rig the lottery? Hot Lotto results come from a computer that randomly generates numbers. Prosecutors currently believe that he may have used a self-deleting malware program to alter the outcome in his favor.

Since Tipton was fired and arrested back in January, the Multi-State Lottery Association has replaced all of the computers and software used to generate the winning numbers.

We missed this news at the time the conspirators were arrested, but the former director’s trial begins on Monday. Tipster TD let us know about the upcoming trial, musing, “Perhaps it’s time to go back to little numbered balls for all lottery drawings?” .

Hot Lotto scandal prompts security changes [Des Moines Register]

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