The lottery in Texas isn’t looking so lucky.
The state of Texas announced Monday it is investigating two big lottery jackpots in the state in which the winning tickets were purchased through a courier service — a third-party service that players can use to buy tickets online — as the state's lottery office announced it was banning such services.
Gov. Greg Abbott announced Monday the Texas Rangers will investigate two cases: a winning $83.5 million ticket that was purchased at the retailer Winners Corner TX in Austin this month and a $95 million Lotto Texas jackpot won in April 2023 in which the winner made a bulk purchase of tickets that included “nearly every possible number combination.”
In the second case, the Texas Lottery said, the winning ticket was purchased at a Lottery Now retailer in Colleyville. It was then the third-largest jackpot in Lotto Texas history.
“Texans must be able to trust in our state’s lottery system and know that the lottery is conducted with integrity and lawfully,” Abbott said in a news release. “Today, I directed the Texas Rangers to fully investigate these incidents and identify any potential wrongdoing. Texans deserve a lottery that is fair and transparent for everyone.”
The Texas Lottery Commission also announced it is banning lottery courier services.
Lottery courier companies are unregulated. They function by taking lottery ticket orders from players over the phone or online, buy the agreed-upon tickets from licensed lottery retailers and charge fees for purchasing and managing tickets. Courier services will often be in the retail locations that sell lottery tickets.
The Texas Lottery Commission said that it will expand investigations into all courier services operating in the state and that any retailer found to be working with a courier service will have its license revoked.
“Last week, a high profile Lotto Texas jackpot win involving a courier service that purchased the winning ticket for a customer intensified discussion about whether these businesses should be permitted to operate in Texas. This jackpot win led to investigations by the agency amid continued focus by the public and our stakeholders,” Lottery Commission Executive Director Ryan Mindell said in statement announcing the updated policy.
He said the proliferation of couriers “has raised serious concerns that the integrity, security, honesty and fairness of lottery games is being undermined by the continued activity of courier services.”
The commission also announced that as of Monday, licensed Texas lottery retailers can operate only five lottery terminals.
The announcement is a reversal for the commission. In 2016, it told retailers and lawmakers it lacked the authority to regulate couriers, The Texas Tribune reported.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick blasted the policy announcement, writing Monday on X: “I’ve never read so much garbage from a state agency press release in my 18 years in office. After years of claiming they had no authority to regulate lottery couriers, today the Texas Lottery Commission suddenly exercised the ultimate regulatory authority by banning all lottery couriers in Texas."
“Today’s action is an obvious admission that the Texas Lottery Commission had the oversight authority all along and allowed these businesses to creep into Texas and undermine the integrity of the Texas Lottery,” he said.
Patrick posted a video on X visiting the Winners Corner location on Feb. 18, when this month's $83 million winning ticket was sold in Austin. He questions the store manager about that ticket and the manager concedes, "We are a courier." In the video, Patrick speaks to an attorney for the business who says that Winner's Corner is a retailer licensed by the Lottery Commission and that the courier service Jackpocket, which is how the winning ticket was purchased, works with the retailer.
The Coalition of Texas Lottery Couriers, which includes Jackpocket, told NBC affiliate KXAN of Austin: “Lottery couriers have been legally and responsibly operating in Texas since 2019, while always maintaining a transparent and professional relationship with the Texas Lottery Commission.”
“Throughout this process, the TLC has claimed to have no regulatory authority over courier activities, despite couriers’ persistent requests to be regulated, just as we are in other states. Today’s decision by the TLC to ban lottery courier services is abrupt, disappointing and unnecessary,” the statement said. “We will continue to encourage a regulatory solution, such as the one proposed by HB 3201, which allows our millions of Texas customers to continue to safely and conveniently order lottery tickets using our services.”
Lottery courier services, which have been operating in the state since 2016, have been a hot topic of debate in the state for some time. In some states, they are allowed but regulated, but they are not in Texas.
Texas Lottery Commissioner Clark Smith, whom Abbott appointed in 2023, resigned Friday amid the scrutiny of the department.
Meanwhile, the state Senate Committee on State Affairs met Monday to discuss Senate Bill 28 — which seeks to ban couriers and demand that the Lottery Commission adopt policies to enforce it.