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Lawyers drop request for author's lottery scandal book notesNews Story
Lawyers reversed course on Tuesday and dropped a subpoena in which they had ordered an Iowa journalist to turn over notes related to his book about a lottery industry insider who rigged jackpots in several states. The withdrawal of the subpoena for journalist Perry Beeman's notes came hours after The Associated Press reported that it had been issued and sought materials that were likely protected by Iowa's reporter privilege law. Beeman co-wrote a recent book, The $80 billion Gamble, with
Aug 28, 2019, 10:04 am - Lottery News

Journalist faces subpoena in lawsuit over lottery scandalNews Story
An Iowa journalist who wrote a book about the lottery insider who rigged jackpots in several states has been subpoenaed to turn over notes related to his reporting. Perry Beeman received the subpoena last week from lawyers for Larry Dawson, an Iowa jackpot winner who contends that the rigging reduced his prize by millions of dollars. Beeman co-wrote the recent book The $80 billion Gamble with former Iowa Lottery CEO Terry Rich. It tells the story of how now-imprisoned lottery security cont
Aug 28, 2019, 9:50 am - Lottery News

Lottery losers could get paid after lottery scam lawsuit settles for $4.3 millionNews Story
A class-action lawsuit to benefit potentially millions of owners of losing tickets linked to the largest lottery scam in U.S. history has been settled for $4.3 million, according to a statement sent by an attorney in the case. The settlement will refund the cost of tickets purchased in nine specific drawings dates for games sold in 33 states, the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., between Nov. 23, 2005 and May 23, 2013. A settlement website will be set up to assist people who s
Jul 22, 2019, 6:43 pm - Lottery News

Court rejects Colorado man's claim to full $4.8M lottery jackpot he unwittingly split with scammersNews Story
Even though Amir Massihzadeh of Boulder, Colorado, was the only legitimate winner of a Colorado Lotto jackpot worth $4.8 million in 2005, he's not eligible to claim the full winnings, the Colorado Court of Appeals ruled in a decision released Thursday. Massihzadeh, one of three ticket holders to win that jackpot, accepted his prize of $568,990, after taxes. But 10 years later, a criminal investigation exposed a scheme to rig lotteries across state lines, and officials determined the other two
Jun 21, 2019, 8:39 am - Lottery News

Lottery winner can seek bigger prize at trial, judge rulesNews Story
Lucky Larry may have a shot to win millions more this time from a jury. A judge has ordered a trial in a lawsuit filed by Iowa lottery winner Larry Dawson, who contends a $9 million jackpot that he won in 2011 should have been nearly three times as big. Dawson filed his lawsuit in 2016 after an investigation revealed that lottery contractor Eddie Tipton rigged the previous $16.5 million jackpot, bought the winning ticket himself and unsuccessfully worked with associates to claim it. Da
May 17, 2019, 12:01 pm - Lottery News

Lottery-scamming brothers avoid asset seizures by transferring property to their motherNews Story
By Jason Clayworth Two brothers who were behind the largest lottery scam in U.S. history and owe more than $2.3 million in unpaid restitution and court fees recently transferred several properties they owned to their mother. The transfers from Eddie and Tommy Tipton have raised further questions about why four states Oklahoma, Kansas, Wisconsin and Colorado have yet to seize their properties. It has been about two years since the brothers admitted their role in a scam that hijacked lott
Apr 29, 2019, 9:50 pm - Lottery News

Canada lotteries changing biggest games to computerized drawingsNews Story
Random number generators will be used for Lotto Max and Lotto 649 after May 14 Starting mid-May, players of Canada's two largest multi-province lottery games will no longer be able to rely on real lottery ball drawings to choose the winning numbers. Instead, the Interprovincial Lottery Corporation will retire the lottery balls that generate the winning numbers for Lotto Max and Lotto 649 on May 14, moving to a computer program called a random number generator. They're part of our histo
Apr 24, 2019, 6:19 pm - Lottery News

Colorado man who unwittingly split a $4.8M jackpot with scammer is fighting the Colorado LotteryNews Story
In 2005, three people won a Colorado Lotto jackpot worth $4.8 million, and Boulder's Amir Massihzadeh held one set of winning numbers. He accepted his prize of $568,990 after splitting the pot and paying taxes and moved on with life. Ten years later, Colorado Bureau of Investigation agents visited Massihzadeh to interview him about his winning number because they were investigating a criminal scheme to rig lotteries. They suspected the other two ticket-holders who split the prize with Mass
Apr 15, 2019, 10:14 am - Lottery News

NM Lottery Pick 4 computerized drawing glitch made many tickets worthlessNews Story
Players can get a refund IF they held onto losing tickets By Todd Northrop When the New Mexico Lottery introduced its latest lottery draw game, Pick 4, in early February, players had no idea that many of the tickets they purchased were completely worthless with no chance of winning. That's because the game's computerized drawings were incorrectly programmed, making combinations with repeat digits impossible to be drawn. Only combinations in which every digit was different were able to b
Feb 21, 2019, 7:25 pm - Lottery News

Identical winning numbers crop up in hundreds of U.S. lotteries. Are the drawings really random?News Story
By Jason Clayworth America's popular and lucrative lottery drawings, in which computers randomly select numbers that turn a lucky few into instant millionaires, may not be as random as they seem. In dozens of the games across the United States, identical winning numbers have been generated within weeks or months of each other sometimes in consecutive drawings, a Des Moines Register investigation shows. Lottery officials, even some who have previously acknowledged concern with the nation
Jan 31, 2019, 11:49 am - Lottery News