Austin, Texas — Two big lottery drawings in Texas gave away almost $180 million to people who had winning tickets. This has led to more reviews by the state because officials are worried that ticket sellers and buyers may have broken the rules.
The Texas Lottery is one of the biggest in the U.S. State leaders are becoming more and more interested in how the winners of this month’s $83 million jackpot and 2023’s $95 million prize bought tickets that beat the chances. Both of these jackpots are some of the biggest in Texas lotto history.
Texas government leaders say the main question is whether the games are fair.
Late Wednesday, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton began his own investigation on top of the one that Republican Gov. Greg Abbott announced earlier this week. Part of the problem is with messengers, which are businesses that buy lottery tickets for people who live far away. The winner this month used one.
In a statement, Paxton said, “Texas citizens deserve a lot better than bad people getting rich off of a lottery system that can be hacked. We will hold anyone guilty of breaking the law accountable.”
What else do you need to know about Texas’s big lottery wins?
What do messenger services do?
Couriers are businesses that help people buy and send lottery tickets online. This goes around a state rule that says tickets must be bought in person. A study from 2024 from the Florida Office of Program Analysis and Government Accountability says that couriers work in 19 states. In Texas, there are no rules or licenses that govern them.
Some politicians are worried that kids and people from outside the state will buy tickets.
The head of the Texas Lottery Commission said this month that couriers will not be allowed to work for the agency. This is a change from years ago when they didn’t want to get rid of them.
“Lottery courier services in Texas have been a big worry for a lot of our stakeholders,” said Ryan Mindell, executive head of the lottery. “Before, the agency thought that its power did not include the ability to regulate or ban these services.” Mindell said that the agency has since changed its mind after looking at state rules.
Who got the almost $180 million?
As of now, neither of the big prize winners has come forward in public, and Texas law doesn’t require them to.
A customer bought the $83 million ticket on February 17 at a company in Austin called Winners Corner. The chain has places in six different states.
Abbott’s office says that the winners of the $95 million drawing from 2023 bought almost every possible number combination. The Houston Chronicle looked into it and found that the ticket was bought at a store that got 12 new lotto terminals the day before the drawing so that tickets could be printed.
People who work with machines said to the newspaper that they can read QR codes and process a lot of tickets quickly. Most of the time, the QR pictures come straight from the Texas Lottery Commission’s mobile app.
Because of the criticism, one of the five lotto commissioners in the state has since quit, and the commission has said that couriers will no longer be able to sell tickets.
A manager at the courier site Jackpot.com told lawmakers on Monday, “We do not buy tickets in bulk, and we are not part of some organized crime syndicate.” “We think that having rules for the courier business is good for the state of Texas.”
In Texas, can you still buy lottery tickets?
People in Texas can still use delivery services while the lottery is still going on, at least until April, when the state’s Lottery Commission changes the rules.
For years, the commission said it didn’t have any power over courier companies, but now it wants to ban them. Also, Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a former Houston TV sportscaster who earlier this month walked into a Winners Corner store with a camera going and started asking questions, said bad things about it.
How to gamble in Texas
In the past few years, Texas gaming has had a rough patch. There have been expensive political campaigns to bring casinos to the second-most populous state in the country and make sports betting legal, but those efforts have failed.
People who want to change the constitution have tried to get it put to the people, but their plans have not gone very far in the Legislature.
The commission’s website says that since it began in 1992, the state lottery has brought in more than $40 billion in sales and given away more than $90 billion in prizes.
