In 2017, he plead guilty to conspiring to collect cash from lotteries in six different states in the central U.S. Amazingly he was set to be released on parole for his great behavior in prison. Until he misbehaved.

His name is Eddie Tipton. According to KCCI, Tipton, along with his brother Tommie, and another man, cheated the system. A system that Eddie knew the ins and outs of, working as a software writer for the Multi-State Lottery Association in Urbandale, Iowa.

In court in 2017, Eddie Tipton said, "I wrote software that included code that allowed me to understand or technically predict winning numbers, and I gave those numbers to other individuals who then won the lottery and shared the winnings with me."

KCCI reported that Tipton believed it wasn't illegal because he was simply capitalizing on a software loophole. He couldn't actually believe that, could he?

Eddie Tipton comes clean in lotto rigging scandal

Tipton was sentenced to 25 years in prison and the court told him and his brother that they would have to pay $2.2 million in restitution. That dollar amount reflects the total amount of money that Tipton, his brother, and the other man won in seven lottery winnings before they were stopped by the Iowa Lottery when trying to cash in a $14 million winner. According to KCCI, Eddie Tipton says he only got $351,000 of the money the three received.

Eddie Tipton sentenced in Iowa Lottery rigging scheme

Fast forward to this year. On January 20, Eddie Tipton, who had served less than 20 percent of his sentence at the time was approved for release by the Iowa Board of Parole. However, he blew his chance.

Andrew Boettger, Iowa Board of Parole Chairman, told KCCI, "He incurred a major discipline or major report within the institution after we granted the parole but before he was physically released."  No information on what occurred has been revealed.

Eddie Tipton is now 59. He'll be eligible for parole again in 2023. Corrections officials could move up that timeline but that seems unlikely considering recent events. That's not the end of this story, though.

Tipton has a court date later this year after he filed suit against the state of Iowa. KCCI says Tipton claims he was "under duress to plead guilty" and that officials in the state of Iowa have charged him for restitution in states where Iowa doesn't have jurisdiction. He also says he can't pay the restitution. The trial date is August

https://khak.com/lottery-fraud-eddie-tipton/