The Man Who Rigged The Lottery

He got hold of the winning numbers—five times. But how?

- Reid Forgrave

The video was grainy, but it showed enough to possibly crack open the biggest lottery scam in American history. A heavyset man walks into a QuikTrip convenience store just off Interstate 80 in Des Moines, Iowa, two days before Christmas 2010. The hood of his sweatshirt is pulled over his head, obscuring his face. He grabs a fountain drink and two hot dogs.

“Hello!” the cashier says brightly.

Head down, the man replies in a low-pitched drawl: “Hell-ooooh.”

They exchange a few more words. The man pulls two pieces of paper from his pocket. The cashier runs them through the lottery terminal and then hands over some change. Once outside, the man pulls off his hood, gets into his SUV, and drives away.

The pieces of paper were play slips for Hot Lotto, a lottery game that was available in 14 states and Washington, DC. A player (or the game’s computer) picked five numbers and then a sixth, known as the Hot Ball. Players who got all six numbers right won a jackpot that varied according to how many tickets were sold. At the time of the video, the jackpot was approaching $10 million. The stated odds of winning it were 1 in 10,939,383.

Six days later, on December 29, the Hot Lotto numbers were selected: 3, 12, 16, 26, 33, 11. The next day, the Iowa Lottery announced that a Quik- Trip in Des Moines had sold the winning ticket. But no one came forward to claim the now $16.5 million jackpot.

After a month passed, the Iowa Lottery held a news conference to note that the money was still uncollected. The lottery issued another public reminder three months after the winning numbers were announced, then another at six months and again at nine months, each time warning that winners had one year to claim their money.