
The $80 Billion Gamble
The Inside Story of How a Suspicious Ticket, Hot Dogs and Bigfoot Foiled the Biggest Lottery Fraud in U.S. History
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $19.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Terry Rich
-
Perry Beeman
About this listen
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 audiobook 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 listeners an exclusive inside view of one of the most surprising and captivating white-collar crimesthe 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 listen in this audiobook, they did - against long odds.
©2019 Rich Keynote L.L.C. (P)2019 Rich Keynote L.L.C.Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Fool Me Once
- Scams, Stories, and Secrets from the Trillion-Dollar Fraud Industry
- By: Kelly Richmond Pope
- Narrated by: Diana Blue
- Length: 7 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Fool Me Once, renowned expert Kelly Richmond Pope shows fraud in action, uncovering what makes perps tick, victims so gullible, and whistleblowers so morally righteous, while also encouraging us to look at our own behaviors and motivations in the hopes of protecting ourselves and our companies.
By the time you finish this book, you'll have a better understanding of—and perhaps more compassion for—perpetrators; a renewed connection to victims; and an appreciation for those who blow the whistle.
-
-
True crime lover!
- By Kelly Richmond Pope on 03-31-23
-
Going Infinite
- The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon
- By: Michael Lewis
- Narrated by: Michael Lewis
- Length: 9 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Michael Lewis first met him, Sam Bankman-Fried was the world’s youngest billionaire and crypto’s Gatsby. CEOs, celebrities, and leaders of small countries all vied for his time and cash after he catapulted, practically overnight, onto the Forbes billionaire list. Who was this rumpled guy in cargo shorts and limp white socks, whose eyes twitched across Zoom meetings as he played video games on the side?
-
-
really expected more rigor from Michael Lewis
- By Wowhello on 10-04-23
By: Michael Lewis
-
Trust the Plan
- The Rise of QAnon and the Conspiracy That Unhinged America
- By: Will Sommer
- Narrated by: Joe Knezevich
- Length: 8 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The definitive book on QAnon from the reporter knows them best; Will Sommer explains what it is, how it has gained a mainstream following among Republican lawmakers and ordinary citizens, the threat it poses to democracy, and how we can reach those who have embraced the conspiracy and are disseminating its lies.
-
-
The best one so far
- By joey carbo on 03-02-23
By: Will Sommer
-
Unscripted
- The Epic Battle for a Media Empire and the Redstone Family Legacy
- By: James B. Stewart, Rachel Abrams
- Narrated by: Robert Petkoff
- Length: 12 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 2016, the fate of Paramount Global’s entertainment empire hung precariously in the balance. Its founder and head, ninety-three-year-old Sumner M. Redstone, was facing a very public lawsuit brought by a former romantic companion, Manuela Herzer, which placed Sumner’s deteriorating health and questionable judgment under a harsh light.
-
-
I could t wait for it to end
- By Abbie L. Smith on 03-01-23
By: James B. Stewart, and others
-
Retail Gangster
- The Insane, Real-Life Story of Crazy Eddie
- By: Gary Weiss
- Narrated by: Richard Ferrone
- Length: 11 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Back in the fall of 2016, we heard the news about the passing of Eddie Antar, "Crazy Eddie" as he was known to millions of people, the man behind the successful chain of electronic stores and one of the most iconic ad campaigns in history. Few things evoke the New York of a particular era the way "Crazy Eddie! His prices are insaaaaane!" does. The journalist Herb Greenberg called his death the "end of an era" and that couldn't be more true. What's insane is that his story has never been told.
-
-
Great Story, Long Listen
- By Bridget on 03-26-23
By: Gary Weiss
-
Chaos
- Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties
- By: Tom O'Neill, Dan Piepenbring
- Narrated by: Kevin Stillwell
- Length: 16 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Over two grim nights in Los Angeles, the young followers of Charles Manson murdered seven people, including the actress Sharon Tate, then eight months pregnant. With no mercy and seemingly no motive, the Manson Family followed their leader's every order. Twenty years ago, when journalist Tom O'Neill was reporting a magazine piece about the murders, he worried there was nothing new to say. Then he unearthed shocking evidence of a cover-up behind the "official" story, including police carelessness, legal misconduct, and potential surveillance by intelligence agents.
-
-
Don't fall for the negative reviews...
- By Visualverbs on 08-04-19
By: Tom O'Neill, and others
-
Fool Me Once
- Scams, Stories, and Secrets from the Trillion-Dollar Fraud Industry
- By: Kelly Richmond Pope
- Narrated by: Diana Blue
- Length: 7 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Fool Me Once, renowned expert Kelly Richmond Pope shows fraud in action, uncovering what makes perps tick, victims so gullible, and whistleblowers so morally righteous, while also encouraging us to look at our own behaviors and motivations in the hopes of protecting ourselves and our companies.
By the time you finish this book, you'll have a better understanding of—and perhaps more compassion for—perpetrators; a renewed connection to victims; and an appreciation for those who blow the whistle.
-
-
True crime lover!
- By Kelly Richmond Pope on 03-31-23
-
Going Infinite
- The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon
- By: Michael Lewis
- Narrated by: Michael Lewis
- Length: 9 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Michael Lewis first met him, Sam Bankman-Fried was the world’s youngest billionaire and crypto’s Gatsby. CEOs, celebrities, and leaders of small countries all vied for his time and cash after he catapulted, practically overnight, onto the Forbes billionaire list. Who was this rumpled guy in cargo shorts and limp white socks, whose eyes twitched across Zoom meetings as he played video games on the side?
-
-
really expected more rigor from Michael Lewis
- By Wowhello on 10-04-23
By: Michael Lewis
-
Trust the Plan
- The Rise of QAnon and the Conspiracy That Unhinged America
- By: Will Sommer
- Narrated by: Joe Knezevich
- Length: 8 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The definitive book on QAnon from the reporter knows them best; Will Sommer explains what it is, how it has gained a mainstream following among Republican lawmakers and ordinary citizens, the threat it poses to democracy, and how we can reach those who have embraced the conspiracy and are disseminating its lies.
-
-
The best one so far
- By joey carbo on 03-02-23
By: Will Sommer
-
Unscripted
- The Epic Battle for a Media Empire and the Redstone Family Legacy
- By: James B. Stewart, Rachel Abrams
- Narrated by: Robert Petkoff
- Length: 12 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 2016, the fate of Paramount Global’s entertainment empire hung precariously in the balance. Its founder and head, ninety-three-year-old Sumner M. Redstone, was facing a very public lawsuit brought by a former romantic companion, Manuela Herzer, which placed Sumner’s deteriorating health and questionable judgment under a harsh light.
-
-
I could t wait for it to end
- By Abbie L. Smith on 03-01-23
By: James B. Stewart, and others
-
Retail Gangster
- The Insane, Real-Life Story of Crazy Eddie
- By: Gary Weiss
- Narrated by: Richard Ferrone
- Length: 11 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Back in the fall of 2016, we heard the news about the passing of Eddie Antar, "Crazy Eddie" as he was known to millions of people, the man behind the successful chain of electronic stores and one of the most iconic ad campaigns in history. Few things evoke the New York of a particular era the way "Crazy Eddie! His prices are insaaaaane!" does. The journalist Herb Greenberg called his death the "end of an era" and that couldn't be more true. What's insane is that his story has never been told.
-
-
Great Story, Long Listen
- By Bridget on 03-26-23
By: Gary Weiss
-
Chaos
- Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties
- By: Tom O'Neill, Dan Piepenbring
- Narrated by: Kevin Stillwell
- Length: 16 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Over two grim nights in Los Angeles, the young followers of Charles Manson murdered seven people, including the actress Sharon Tate, then eight months pregnant. With no mercy and seemingly no motive, the Manson Family followed their leader's every order. Twenty years ago, when journalist Tom O'Neill was reporting a magazine piece about the murders, he worried there was nothing new to say. Then he unearthed shocking evidence of a cover-up behind the "official" story, including police carelessness, legal misconduct, and potential surveillance by intelligence agents.
-
-
Don't fall for the negative reviews...
- By Visualverbs on 08-04-19
By: Tom O'Neill, and others
-
Doing Justice
- A Prosecutor's Thoughts on Crime, Punishment, and the Rule of Law
- By: Preet Bharara
- Narrated by: Preet Bharara
- Length: 10 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Preet Bharara has spent much of his life examining our legal system, pushing to make it better, and prosecuting those looking to subvert it. Bharara believes in our system and knows it must be protected, but to do so, he argues, we must also acknowledge and allow for flaws both in our justice system and in human nature. Bharara uses the many illustrative anecdotes and case histories from his storied, formidable career - the successes as well as the failures - to shed light on the realities of the legal system and the consequences of taking action.
-
-
Timely released
- By Deb Talley on 03-22-19
By: Preet Bharara
-
Black Edge
- Inside Information, Dirty Money, and the Quest to Bring Down the Most Wanted Man on Wall Street
- By: Sheelah Kolhatkar
- Narrated by: Kaleo Griffith
- Length: 12 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Steven A. Cohen changed Wall Street. He and his fellow pioneers of the hedge fund industry didn’t lay railroads, build factories, or invent new technologies. Rather, they made their billions through financial speculation, by placing bets in the market that turned out to be right more often than not.
-
-
Amazing book about trading that feels like an adventure novel
- By Tim S on 05-24-18
-
The Divide
- American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap
- By: Matt Taibbi
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 14 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Over the last two decades, America has been falling deeper and deeper into a statistical mystery: Poverty goes up. Crime goes down. The prison population doubles. Fraud by the rich wipes out 40 percent of the world’s wealth. The rich get massively richer. No one goes to jail. In search of a solution, journalist Matt Taibbi discovered the Divide, the seam in American life where our two most troubling trends—growing wealth inequality and mass incarceration—come together, driven by a dramatic shift in American citizenship: Our basic rights are now determined by our wealth or poverty.
-
-
But still it seems no-one will act
- By TM on 05-14-14
By: Matt Taibbi
-
Revenge
- How Donald Trump Weaponized the US Department of Justice Against His Critics
- By: Michael Cohen
- Narrated by: Keith Szarabajka
- Length: 7 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Michael Cohen's secret payoff to porn star Stormy Daniels on behalf of Donald Trump made Cohen look like a liability to the by-then-president of the United States, the end to their decade-long relationship came swiftly—with a knock on the door from the FBI. Soon, Cohen would find himself imprisoned—even though he had plenty of evidence to show he was innocent of most of the charges.
-
-
Obnoxious Reader
- By Kaine on 11-13-22
By: Michael Cohen
-
The Mastermind
- Drugs. Empire. Murder. Betrayal.
- By: Evan Ratliff
- Narrated by: Evan Ratliff
- Length: 11 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The incredible true story of the decade-long quest to bring down Paul Le Roux - the creator of a frighteningly powerful internet-enabled cartel who merged the ruthlessness of a drug lord with the technological savvy of a Silicon Valley entrepreneur.
-
-
Being too reliant on consensus backfires occasiona
- By El Alamein on 07-17-19
By: Evan Ratliff
-
Political Prisoner
- Persecuted, Prosecuted, but Not Silenced
- By: Paul Manafort
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 14 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The chief weapon deployed by the government-corporate-media Establishment against the Trump presidency was propaganda. Time and again, allegations from anonymous sources were disseminated by a partisan media, promoted by a dishonest Democrat Party leadership, and ultimately debunked when the facts surfaced. But by the time the truth came out, it was too late. There had already been casualties. One of the highest profile casualties was Paul Manafort.
-
-
Not totally accurate
- By Kimberly Lindsey on 08-07-23
By: Paul Manafort
-
Holding the Line
- Inside the Nation's Preeminent US Attorney's Office and Its Battle with the Trump Justice Department
- By: Geoffrey Berman
- Narrated by: Geoffrey Berman
- Length: 9 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ascending to the leadership role of US Attorney for the Southern District, which includes Manhattan and several counties to the north, is a capstone to any legal career: it entails guiding a team of the best lawyers in America in selecting and winning cases that often have global import. Geoffrey Berman was honored to be tapped for the job by Donald Trump in 2018. The manner in which Trump had dispatched his predecessor Preet Bharara was troubling, but the institution was fabled for its independence. Surely he could manage.
-
-
Excellent Story of SDNY JD during Trump Years
- By WLC on 09-14-22
By: Geoffrey Berman
-
Breaking Blue
- Real Life Stories of Cops Falsely Accused
- By: Sean "Sticks" Larkin
- Narrated by: Sean "Sticks" Larkin
- Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Body cams and dashcams have fundamentally transformed law enforcement in recent years. These innovations can help prove someone committed a crime, or didn't. Real-life footage has cleared people initially accused of wrongdoing, and in certain instances even implicated officers. But that same type of footage can also be used to clear police falsely accused of misdeeds. From allegations of harassment or bias to false arrests or even criminal conduct, these videos can prove officers did not cross a line as, sometimes, they are alleged to have done.
-
-
You don’t know until you’ve ride along
- By Mildred B. Gowen on 06-20-21
-
True Crimes and Misdemeanors
- The Investigation of Donald Trump
- By: Jeffrey Toobin
- Narrated by: Rob Shapiro
- Length: 18 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Donald Trump's campaign chairman went to jail. So did his personal lawyer. His long-time political consigliere was convicted of serious federal crimes, and his national security advisor pled guilty to others. Career intelligence agents and military officers were alarmed enough by the president's actions that they alerted senior government officials and ignited the impeachment process. Yet despite all this, a years-long inquiry led by special counsel Robert Mueller, and the third impeachment of a president in American history, Donald Trump survived to run for re-election. Why?
-
-
More than just a bit misleading.
- By Tim Sharp on 08-14-20
By: Jeffrey Toobin
-
True Blue
- By: Stephen Friend
- Narrated by: Josiah Norton
- Length: 6 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Stephen Friend had his dream job as an FBI special agent. After nearly a decade of combating violent crime, human trafficking, and child predators, he was reassigned to the FBI’s unprecedented investigation of the political unrest at the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.
-
-
Awesome book
- By Elsa on 07-09-23
By: Stephen Friend
-
The American Trap
- My Battle to Expose America's Secret Economic War Against the Rest of the World
- By: Frédéric Pierucci, Matthieu Aron
- Narrated by: Luke Thompson
- Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is the story of a man caught in the middle of a huge American destabilising operation, illustrating the secret economic war that the United States is waging against developed nations across the world. In 2014, France lost part of the control of its nuclear power plants to the United States. Frédéric Pierucci, former senior executive of one of Alstom's subsidiaries, found himself at the heart of this state scandal. His story goes to the very heart of a $12 billion thriller that illustrates the secret economic war that the United States is waging in Europe.
-
-
Unbelievable
- By John on 11-23-21
By: Frédéric Pierucci, and others
-
Where Law Ends
- Inside the Mueller Investigation
- By: Andrew Weissmann
- Narrated by: George Newbern, Andrew Weissmann
- Length: 14 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the first and only inside account of the Mueller investigation, one of the special counsel’s most trusted prosecutors breaks his silence on the team’s history-making search for the truth, their painstaking deliberations and costly mistakes, and Trump’s unprecedented efforts to stifle their report.
-
-
Riveting
- By Victoria Eriksson on 10-06-20
By: Andrew Weissmann
What listeners say about The $80 Billion Gamble
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Dan Turner
- 03-06-22
Interesting facts in dire need of an editor
“The $80 Million Gamble” is infamous in lottery circles, and it is a testament to the fact that no matter the security systems in place, it takes good people to make those systems work.
However, the amount of repetition in the book leads on to ponder whether multiple people edited the chapters separately. Also, the snarky asides set a tone of a tale being told at a dimly lit roadside lounge rather than a serious examination of the complexities of lottery security and the lives on either side of right and wrong.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- LM
- 06-28-21
Interesting subject matter, poorly told story...
This is like listening to your drunk uncle tell a story you're interested in hearing, but he can't stay on topic, keeps going back and telling you things he already told you, gets caught up in the minutiae, and can't just get to the freaking point.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Kevin
- 06-15-19
Not ready for publication
In the recording, there are many instances in which the author stumbles over a phrase and repeats it, but the first instance wasn't edited out.
The text needs heavy editing to be ready for book form. The flow is often needlessly interrupted when the authors often cut to poetic asides about greed or money or whatever that have nothing to do with the story. But more importantly, there are major structural issues that more or less remove any sense of suspense of interest in continuing. The book opens with something approximating an inverted pyramid style article about the subject, which summarizes the entire story and spoils the ending. Then it loops around and tells the same story again with the details that probably should have been there the first time. The repetition and asides eventually make it feel like they're just padding it out for length.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
5 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Mark
- 06-30-19
Excellent!
Extremely well researched and presented! Riveting topic in today’s world. A must read for anyone intrigued by digital crime and the integrity of the system!! Congratulations to the authors for a great job, to Iowa law enforcement for not giving up, and to the Iowa Lottery for not giving in to the wrong pressures!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!