The 1980 Pennsylvania Lottery scandal, colloquially known as the Triple Six Fix, was a successful plot to rig The Daily Number, a three-digit game of the Pennsylvania Lottery. All of the balls in the three machines, except those numbered 4 and 6, were weighted, meaning that the drawing was almost sure to be a combination of those digits. 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. The chief conspirators were sent to prison, and most of the fraudulently acquired winnings were never paid out. Planning The plan was masterminded by Nick Perry (1916–2003), The Daily Numbers announcer. Perry was born Nicholas Pericles Katsafanas in the Morningside neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He attended Peabody High School and Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. After serving in the U.S. Navy in World War II, Perry began a career as a radio broadcaster in Charleston, West Virginia, then entered television broadcasting on Pittsburgh's WDTV, the forerunner of KDKA-TV. Perry later moved over to rival WTAE-TV in 1958, as a staff announcer. Later, he became a news and weather reporter and was the host of local sports shows like Bowling for Dollars and Championship Bowling. In 1977, Perry became the host of the live nightly broadcast of the Pennsylvania Lottery, held in the studios of WTAE. Perry first discussed his idea with Jack and Peter Maragos, two of his partners in a vending machine business. Once committed to the plan, Perry approached local Pittsburgh lettering expert and WTAE art director Joseph Bock about creating weighted ping-pong balls that were replicas of the official balls used in the lottery machines. The No. 4 and No. 6 balls were chosen as the lucky lighter balls. Perry got access to the machines and ping-pong balls, which had been kept in a room at WTAE studios, through Edward Plevel, a lottery official. The room was locked with two keys; Perry had one, and Plevel had the other. Plevel left the machines and balls unguarded for several minutes on a few occasions. 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. Bock then took the rigged balls back to his studio and burned them in