Illinois State Lottery Scandal

Dealing With Scandals

Attempts to rig the lottery results have taken place in the past but it was not successful. Among these the most outrageous was the 1980 Pennsylvania illinois lottery scandal better known as the ‘Triple six fix.’ The modus operandi was simple and brilliant. It would have been successful, had it not been for the greed of the scamsters. The conspirators were caught and got a prison term for their role in the scam.

The Mastermind

The master-mind of the triple six fix was an announcer in the Daily number. Perry was born as Nicholas Pericles in Pennsylvania. After a brief stint in the US navy he started as a radio broadcaster for Charleston in the state of West Virginia. He worked for some time with the WDTV before joining WTAE as a staff announcer. He also worked as a news and weather reporter and hosted some local sports shows. Perry became the host for Pennsylvania lottery live broadcasts every night.
Perry first briefed his plan to his business partners, Peter Maragos and Jack Maragos. He then roped in Joseph Bock who worked as an art director .Joseph was entrusted the job to create weighted balls which were replicas of the original balls. After an exhaustive process of trying different materials he finally settled for white latex paint. The replicas were created in such a way that it flew up the bottom of the lottery draw machine but not high enough to reach the vacuum tube. To prevent any suspicion the tricksters left two balls unchanged, the 4 and 6 balls. The labels were applied on the balls so that it resembled the original.

The Switch

To have access to the machines Perry roped in Edward Plevel, a middle rung official at Pennsylvania Lottery winners. Plevel left the machine unguarded for some time to allow stagehand Fred Luman to execute the switch. The rigged balls were burnt to destroy any incriminating evidence.

The Drawing

On April 24th, 1980 a senior citizen pulled out 666 as the winning numbers. The drawing was watched by millions of voters across the US. The Illinois state lottery officials became suspicious when they learnt that Lotteries of a particular series were being purchased in large numbers. Their suspicion was further fueled when they found a handful of players coming to claim the prizes. An anonymous tip led the officials to bar in Philadelphia from where the Maragos brothers had purchased a majority of the tickets. An employee recognized Maragos as the man who purchased a large number of tickets. Damning Evidence against Perry was established when Maragos’ call to Perry was traced. The police picked up Maragos and on interrogation he let the cat out of the bag. Maragos also placed bets with the local bookmakers that used the lottery draws as the basis of their winning results. This proved to be the scamsters Achilles heel as they could not keep the lid on the conspiracy.

Aftermath

Perry was found guilty for conspiracy, rigging a public contest, and theft. Perry was sentenced to seven years imprisonment. The lottery amount was recovered from the Maragos brothers who avoided imprisonment by agreeing to testify against Perry.