As throngs of hopeful lottery players prepare for Wednesday’s $650 million Powerball jackpot, the second-largest in US history, a former state lottery worker in Iowa is getting ready himself — for up to 25 years in prison for fixing games.

Disgraced computer programmer Eddie Tipton admitted in June to masterminding a multistate lottery-rigging scheme that let him pick winning numbers and rake in $2 million.

Tipton, 54, who was arrested in 2015, is scheduled for sentencing Tuesday.

“The depth of his deceit is dumbfounding,” Iowa Assistant Attorney General Rob Sand said in court filings seeking the 25-year term. “Such crimes cannot be answered without a prison sentence.”

Tipton admitted to fixing the lottery six times in five different states between 2005 and 2011.

He told investigators how he secretly installed computer software that allowed him to pick numbers and roped in his brother Tommy Tipton, a friend, Robert Rhodes, and others to buy the tickets.

Tommy Tipton is serving a 75-day sentence in Texas, and Rhodes will be sentenced on Aug. 25.



With wires