
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — A proposed class-action lawsuit argues that thousands of lottery players who were allegedly cheated by an insider’s long-running scheme to rig jackpots should be reimbursed for their losing tickets.
Lawyers filed the fraud case Wednesday against the Multi-State Lottery Association, the Iowa-based nonprofit that helps administer games that are offered by state lotteries for games in Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma and Wisconsin.
It alleges the association failed to prevent games from being rigged and failed to operate them in accordance with their own rules.
The association’s former security director, Eddie Tipton, is charged with installing software on lotteries’ random number generators that allowed him to predict winning numbers on three days of the year. The scheme allegedly lasted for years.
The lawsuit says that anyone who played in drawings on those days should get their money back, plus interest.
In testimony during a May 2016 hearing in the case, a friend of Tipton’s said she was given a winning Kansas Lottery ticket worth $15,000 in 2011 as an engagement gift.