Texas Lottery Win Under Investigation for Use of Courier Service

^{A woman in Texas will have to fight for her lottery winnings after it was determined she used a courier service to buy her Lotto tickets. (Image: LM Otero / AP)}

A woman who hit a $83.5 million jackpot in a Texas lottery last month says she’s still waiting to collect her winnings, as Texas officials are investigating the win due to her use of a lottery courier. 

The jackpot, won in a Feb. 17 Lotto Texas drawing, followed a controversial win in an April 2023 drawing in which three men from Europe bough nearly every possible combination to virtually secure a win.

Lawmakers Question Fairness of Lottery Couriers

The winning ticket for the Feb. 17 drawing was sold at Winner’s Corner in North Austin. Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick later visited the store and talked to the manager there, who said that the winning ticket was purchased through a courier, with Patrick then questioning the fairness of that practice.

“The bottom line is, if people are going to have confidence in the lottery, we have to be sure that no one has an advantage,” Patrick said. “This is not the way the lottery was designed to operate.”

Lottery couriers are third-party services that allow individuals to buy lottery tickets virtually, often using mobile apps. The purchaser decides the types of tickets they wish to buy, then an agent of the courier buys the tickets in person on their behalf.

These courier services have been a growing part of the state lottery ecosystem in recent years. The winner of the Feb. 17 jackpot purchased their ticket via Jackpocket, which is owned by DraftKings – the same company that owns the Winner’s Corner store.

These services have been operating in Texas since at least 2016. While the state legislature has looked at potentially banning couriers from participating in the Texas lottery, a bill died in the Texas House of Representatives after passing the Texas Senate in the last legislative session. Similar bills have once again been introduced in the current session, while some legislators have asked the Texas Lottery Commission why they aren’t doing more to stop the practice.

“You’ve got major rules that we have in place for the Texas Lotto: cash, in person, in the facility,” State Sen. Bob Hall (R-Edgewood said during a Senate Finance Committee hearing last week. “And yet, you are facilitating an organization that can violate both of those. I don’t understand how you don’t think you have an obligation to stop that behavior.”

European Group Won $95 Million Jackpot by Holding Nearly Every Combo

The most controversial use of lottery couriers occurred during the $95 million drawing on April 22, 2023. At the time, three European men managed to purchase nearly 26 million tickets in under 72 hours, covering approximately 99 percent of all available numbers. When the team ultimately won the jackpot, they took the lump sum payment of $57.8 million and made a profit of approximately $20 million. 

But the winner of the Feb. 17 drawing says that’s nothing like her experience.

“I literally spent $20,” the winner told the Austin American-Statesman. “I didn’t spend $26 million to run every single possible combination of numbers. If you didn’t do an investigation into the [April 2023 jackpot winner], that’s on you. That’s not my fault.”

The Texas Lottery Commission has issued a statement about the Feb. 17 jackpot, saying that “the claim is being reviewed under the commission’s claim validation requirements and is the subject of external investigation.” 

But for now, the Feb. 17 winner has no idea if or when she’ll receive her life-changing winnings. 

“She played by all the rules in play at the time,” Randy Howry, the attorney representing the winner, told the Texas Tribune. “She should be paid her winnings, but she’s being caught up because the politicians are now involved.”