(The Center Square) – A series of investigations have been launched into the Texas Lottery after two suspicious winnings caused alarm in all three branches of state government.
Gov. Greg Abbott directed the Texas Rangers to investigate both, saying, “Texans must be able to trust in our state’s lottery system and know that the lottery is conducted with integrity and lawfully. Texans deserve a lottery that is fair and transparent for everyone.”
The first involved an anonymous player who won a $95 million Lotto Texas jackpot in April 2023, the third highest in state history, after purchasing nearly all 25.8 million number combinations. The feat was allegedly orchestrated by a gaming entrepreneur operating out of Malta, The Houston Chronicle first reported. “The single winner took advantage of a state law allowing big winners to remain anonymous,” the Chronicle notes, raising questions about the Texas Lottery Commission and state law enabling a non-Texan and non-U.S. citizen to “game the system.”
“Austin-based Lottery.com played a central role in the April 2023 Lotto operation; it and an affiliate in Waco processed nearly 7 million of the tickets for the draw,” the Chronicle found.
On Feb. 17, a courier service in north Austin purchased a Lotto Texas ticket, matching all six numbers to win $83.5 million, prompting Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick to investigate.
He posted a video of himself going into the location and asking questions, saying, “Turns out, the retail establishment that sold the winning ticket in the front of the store was owned by the courier service that purchased the ticket behind the wall in the back of the store. I decided to go out and investigate for myself.”
He called the attorney representing the courier service, who said it was licensed by the Texas Lottery Commission. “Do you see an issue where the public might lose confidence if the courier service somehow happened at this one location, in the entire state of Texas sold an $83 million winning ticket and they also own the location that printed the ticket?”
“DraftKings bought Jackpocket; Jackpocket owns the retail and Jackpocket is the courier” that purchased the ticket, winning $83 million, Patrick said.
He also went to the back of the store and said he viewed multiple terminals that “raise a lot of questions and answers we need.”
“This is not the way the lottery was designed to operate,” he said. “It was designed to operate by someone coming into a store giving someone cash and getting a ticket back. Not for machines behind walls and not from a courier service and a retailer all being connected.”
The Texas Senate Finance Committee and State Affairs Committee have held hearings to address concerns about the TLC, which is facing sunset review. The Texas legislature created a state lottery in 1991, which requires those who purchase a ticket to go to a licensed, brick-and-mortar lottery retailer and pay with cash or a debit card.
Sen. Bob Hall, R-Edgewood, has long argued that the TLC has through a rulemaking process “circumvented the intent of the statute and enabled independent, third-party couriers to enter the state and begin offering novel ways to play the lottery, such as by facilitating the purchase of games via an application on a mobile phone or an internet-connected device.”
Hall previously filed SB 1820 to prohibit lottery tickets from being purchased digitally and directed the TLC to adopt rules to enforce it. The bill died in the Texas House. This year, he filed a similar bill, SB 28.
Ahead of the State Affairs Committee hearing on Tuesday, the TLC appeared to backtrack, saying, “lottery ticket courier services are not allowed under Texas law and that the agency will move forward with proposed rule amendments prohibiting lottery courier services within the state.”
At the hearing, Hall said what had been going on for years in the TLC was “a public-private partnership led by a state agency for a criminal conspiracy to defraud Texans’ government agency.”
After Abbott and Patrick called for an investigation, and legislative hearings began, DraftKings, which acquired Jackpocket last year, announced at the committee hearing it would be “suspending lottery courier operations in Texas.”
The announcement may be too little too late since Patrick also called on the Texas Rangers to expand their investigation and the Office of the Texas Attorney General also launched an investigation into the TLC and the “two suspicious and possibly unlawful lottery ‘winnings.’”
