Lottery Class Action Lawsuit Says Jackpots Were Rigged

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The Multi-State Lottery Association has been hit with a class action lawsuit alleging it failed to prevent lottery games from being rigged, thereby cheating hundreds of thousands of lottery ticket purchasers out of their chance of winning the jackpot.

Eddie Tipton, the former MSLA security director, allegedly installed software on the lotteries’ random number generators, preventing them from producing truly random numbers on certain days of the year.

This software produced numbers predetermined by an algorithm, which allowed Tipton to predict the winning numbers three times a year, according to the lottery fraud class action lawsuit.

The software reportedly provided Tipton with predictable numbers on May 27, Nov. 22 and Dec. 9 if the drawings were scheduled to occur Wednesdays or Saturdays after 8 p.m. The rigged lottery class action lawsuit points to nine rigged drawings that took place on these three dates between November 2005 and November 2011.

Tipton, along with his brother and a friend, allegedly worked together to purchase winning lottery tickets from 2005 to 2013 in Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma and Wisconsin.

According to the lottery fraud class action lawsuit, a surveillance video recorded Tipton purchasing a winning $16 million Hot Lotto ticket in December 2010. Others had unsuccessfully tried to cash the winning ticket a year later, and Tipton’s scam was revealed.

Plaintiff Dale Culler filed the rigged lottery class action lawsuit this week in Iowa. He says he kept the $45 in tickets he had purchased in that Hot Lotto drawing. He also reportedly keeps records of all lottery games he plays.

Culler has filed the class action lawsuit on behalf of himself and other consumers who bought lottery tickets with drawings on the dates that Tipton’s software made the winning numbers available to him. He seeks reimbursement for the cost of the tickets, plus interest.

The games that were allegedly affected by Tipton’s lottery scam include Hot Lotto, Colorado Lotto, Wisconsin Megabucks and Kansas 2X2. This list of games may grow as more information is uncovered during the discovery phase of the lottery fraud class action lawsuit.

Investigators reportedly found that Tipton provided a friend with several index cards with potential winning combinations listed on them. Tipton allegedly instructed the friend to play all of the listed combinations in a Wisconsin Megabucks lottery game that was to be drawn on Dec. 29, 2007. The friend reportedly had a winning ticket and subsequently split the $783,000 jackpot with Tipton.

Tipton was reportedly convicted for tampering with lottery equipment and is facing criminal charges for rigging the other drawings.

The rigged lottery class action lawsuit asserts claims for negligence, consumer fraud, unjust enrichment, intentional interference with contract, intentional interference with prospective business expectation, breach of contract and fraud. Culler has requested a trial by jury.

Culler is represented by Jerry Crawford, Nick Mauro and Blake Hanson of Crawford & Mauro Law Firm and Gary Dickey of Dickey & Campbell Law Firm PLC.

The Rigged Lottery Class Action Lawsuit is Dale Culler v. Multi-State Lottery Association, in the Iowa District Court for Polk County.

UPDATE: On July 22, 2019, a settlement has been reached in which millions of lottery players may get a share of a $4.3 million settlement with the Multi-State Lottery Association (MSLA) over claims of lotto rigging.

UPDATE 2: September 2019, the lottery scam class action settlement is now open. Click here to file a claim.