The $80 Billion Gamble – How a lotto ticket, hot dogs and Bigfoot helped crack the largest lottery fraud in U.S. History

The $80 Billion Gamble
194 Pages
ISBN 978-1-950790-98-2

Eddie Tipton went to prison in 2017 for masterminding the biggest lottery fraud in U.S. history. In a twisting and bizarre tale, he somehow mixed a cocktail of greed, Bigfoot hunting, deception, cybercrime and a love of hot dogs on his way to a felony conviction after he and several accomplices scored a series of jackpots from rigged drawings but fell short on the biggest "score' of them all. Call it "The $80 Billion Gamble" because the future of the entire lottery industry was at risk if someone didn't solve this case of computer tampering and multimillion-dollar prizes. Tipton's downfall made international news, but this book tells the story of the investigators and public officials who solved the mystery.

Veteran journalist Perry Beeman and retired lottery executive Terry Rich use a vivid mixture of recorded phone calls, court documents, personal communications, and the public record to give readers an exclusive inside view of one of the most surprising and captivating white-collar crimes the nation has seen. It's a wild story of greed and misplaced confidence, and a study in public officials whose determination survived a nearly cold trail, a team that insisted on being transparent and sticking with the case. As you'll read in these pages, they did – against long odds.

Terry Rich

About Terry Rich (St. Joseph, Missouri Author)

Terry Rich

Terry Rich is a successful CEO, international speaker, and author. Currently, he serves as the CEO of the Iowa Lottery, a $350 million enterprise. Prior to that, he was CEO of the Blank Park Zoo (that's right... a "Zoo Dude"); President and CEO of Rich Heritage Inc., a national marketing and television production company which produced shows for HBO, ESPN, and Comcast, among others; and Vice President of Marketing for Heritage Communications Inc. His current book, Dare to Dream, Dare to Act, lays the groundwork for his inspirational keynotes. As an entrepreneur, Terry developed Rich Heritage Inc., along with four other companies including radio station KBBM, US Digital Video, Newsletter Ease, and the World Championship Socker League, LLC.

He has appeared as a business and idea expert on ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, Sirius XM, and Fox News; movie host on Starz!; and as a panel guest on the "Tonight Show." Terry has won numerous entrepreneurial and leadership awards in television production and marketing, has a Bachelor of Science in Speech from Iowa State University, is Governor Emeritus at ISU, a member of the legacy Cable TV "Pioneers", and Director Emeritus of the Blank Park Zoo.  He also serves on the board of Powerball and is Past President of the North American Lottery Association.

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