Texas man pleads guilty to claiming rigged Wisconsin jackpot

MADISON, Wis. – A Texas businessman has pleaded guilty to using inside information from a lottery official to win a $783,000 Wisconsin jackpot in 2007.

Robert Rhodes pleaded guilty Monday to being party to a computer crime, a felony. He brought with him a $250,000 check to begin paying back the Wisconsin Lottery.

Rhodes will be sentenced later. A plea agreement calls for him to serve six months of home confinement in Texas and pay $409,000 in restitution.

Investigators say Rhodes’ was friends with former Multi-State Lottery Association information technology official Eddie Tipton, who wrote software used to randomly pick numbers for lottery games. He allegedly supplied Rhodes with the winning combination in the 2007 Megabucks game. They allegedly split the $783,000 payout.

Tipton is awaiting trial in Iowa.