News of an Iowa man's conviction for rigging one multi-state lottery drawing and accusations this week that he previously rigged two other drawings have not raised concerns among West Virginia Lottery players, Director John Musgrave said Tuesday.
Musgrave said the Lottery hasn't received any calls or inquiries over the coverage that Eddie Tipton, then the information security director for the Multi-State Lottery Association, based in Urbandale, Iowa, rigged the outcome of a Hot Lotto drawing in 2010, and is accused of rigging multi-state lottery drawings in 2007 and 2008.
Tipton was convicted in July of fraud for putting a program into the association computer used to randomly generate numbers for the Hot Lotto drawings that pre-programmed it to draw a specific set of numbers on that Dec. 29. Tipton also was convicted for purchasing a Hot Lotto ticket with the winning numbers, and having an associate attempt, unsuccessfully, to cash the $14.3 million jackpot winner.
This week, investigators brought additional charges against Tipton, accusing him of rigging lottery drawings in 2007 and 2008, in which his brother and a close friend each won jackpots.
Musgrave said Tuesday the accusations are disturbing, but said the case also shows it is essentially impossible to get away with tampering with a lottery drawing.
"Integrity is the key to everything we do," he said.
Musgrave said it is significant that while Tipton had an "elaborate scheme" to rig the lottery drawings, and had unprecedented access to the association computer, the safeguards in the process ultimately worked.
"In his particular case, they've been successful in the prosecution, and going forward with the investigation," Musgrave said.
Defense attorneys for Tipton, meanwhile, argued there was no physical proof that he rigged the Hot Lotto drawing. However, prosecutors noted the program Tipton was accused of inserting into the computer, called a rootkit, deletes itself once it completes its task.
While West Virginia participates in the multi-state Hot Lotto drawing, which uses a computer to randomly generate winning numbers, the state's Lottery games, Daily 3, Daily 4 and Cash 25, feature nightly live, televised drawings using air-mix machines to randomly draw numbered ping-pong balls.
"A lot of jurisdictions do that on their nightly drawings," Musgrave said of the random number generators. "We still do it live."
Likewise, the two largest multi-state jackpot drawing games available in West Virginia -- Powerball and MegaMillions -- use live, televised drawings.
Reach Phil Kabler at philk@wvgazette.com, 304-348-1220, or follow @PhilKabler on Twitter.