About one in two U.S. adults will purchase a state lottery ticket this year, and convenience stores, grocery stores, and gas stations around the country prominently display their lottery scanners. Whether they prefer state scratchers or one-in-a-million national lottery drawings, countless Americans enjoy testing their luck in the lottery.

And virtually all of them have been lectured at some point about the futility of playing the odds. Yes, the odds of actually winning the Powerball jackpot are about one in 292,000,000, against, but thousands of people win small jackpots and little prizes via lottery scanners every day. Many lottery lovers even have lucky numbers, which they are convinced will one day help them win the top prize.

Well, one lottery “mastermind” has proven once and for all that it is, in fact, possible to “beat” the lottery. Unfortunately, it’s not a technique that we’d recommend.

The Des Moines Register reports that Eddie Tipton, an ex-employee with the Multi-State Lottery Association, wrote a computer code that allowed him to predict the randomly drawn numbers of multi-million prizes around the country. For instance, Tipton received $4.5 million from a rigged jackpot in Colorado in 2005.

Tipton reportedly profited off the secret code for nearly a decade before officials in Iowa busted Tipton and his comrades. In 2017, Tipton received a 25-year prison sentence for his role in rigging the lotteries.

Now, the Des Moines Register is reporting that investigators are examining whether Tipton’s scam was more widespread than previously realized.

Of course, there is no magic formula for winning the lottery; there are no secret numbers that can guarantee a jackpot. Tipton and his accomplices cheated, plain and simple.

Despite this rare incident, millions of people still enjoy playing the odds in the lottery, and retail stores around the country benefit from the sales generated by their lotto scanners.

In fact, these lottery scanners are essential in maintaining the integrity of the various state lotteries around the country, which raise vital funds for education and public services.

Looking to purchase a high quality scanner for lottery tickets, magnetic card readers, document scanners, and smart card scanners? Then contact Peripheral Dynamics Inc. today.