Lawyers seek to depose lottery fraud mastermind in prison

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Lawyers pursuing a class-action lawsuit on behalf of lottery customers nationwide are seeking to interview the jailed insider who allegedly rigged jackpots for himself and others for years.

The lawyers said in a court filing Friday they want to take the deposition of Eddie Tipton at the prison in Clarinda, Iowa, to gather information for their case against the Multi-State Lottery Association.

Judge Michael Huppert recently granted class-action status to the case, which involves customers who bought losing tickets for roughly 20 drawings between 2005 and 2013 that were allegedly tainted by Tipton’s software.

Tipton worked for the Iowa-based lottery association, where he built and installed random number generators that picked winning combinations.

He’s serving a prison sentence after admitting to installing code that allowed him to predict winning numbers on certain days of the year, and working with his brother and others to buy tickets and win jackpots.