1980 Pennsylvania Lottery scandal

The scheme was successful in that 666 (one of the eight combinations of 4s and 6s that the "fixers" were hoping for) was drawn on April 24, 1980; however, the unusual betting patterns alerted authorities to the crime.

Perry got access to the machines and ping-pong balls, which had been kept in a room at WTAE studios,[2] through Edward Plevel, a lottery official.

Perry also got WTAE stagehand Fred Luman to physically switch the original balls with the weighted ones twice: once before and once after the drawing.

[3][2] Lottery authorities and local bookmakers became suspicious when they noticed that a large number of tickets were purchased for the eight possible combinations, and a handful of players came forward to claim the prize.

On the date of the drawing, the Maragos brothers traveled around Pennsylvania buying large quantities of tickets containing the eight possible numbers.

The investigation was broken open when an anonymous tip led to a bar near Philadelphia where the brothers had bought a large number of lottery tickets.

An employee remembered the brothers coming into the bar with a platinum-blonde woman and laying down a large amount of cash to buy lottery tickets, all on the eight specific numbers.

[citation needed] Investigators pulled the phone records and traced the call to the WTAE-TV announcer's booth in the studio where the drawing was done.

William Moran of Fairmont, West Virginia, organized the out-of-state buying of additional lottery tickets for a numbers-running scam.

The 2000 film Lucky Numbers, starring John Travolta and Lisa Kudrow, was loosely based on Perry's story.

In 2006, Game Show Network aired a documentary in their Anything to Win series about the scandal, complete with anecdotes from former WTAE and KDKA news anchor Don Cannon.