$83.5M jackpot winner files suit demanding payment from Texas lottery: 'Do the right thing'
The winner of the Feb. 17 Lotto Texas jackpot worth $83.5 million has filed a lawsuit in Travis County seeking to compel the Lottery Commission to pay up.
The winning ticket, purchased through a courier company, has been ruled valid but the commission has refused to pay it out because the Texas Rangers are investigating the use of courier companies in Texas.
"We waited as long as we could for the lottery to do the right thing," Randy Howry, an Austin attorney representing the winner, told the American-Statesman on Thursday. "Now, we're asking the judge to issue an order telling the lottery to pay."
If that order is not handed down, Howry said his client will seek an order to compel the lottery to set aside the prize money until the case is finally settled.
"We understand that there's an effort in the Legislature to move the lottery to a different state agency, and we don't want that money to get lost in the shuffle," he said.
The buyer of the winning ticket, who under state law is permitted to remain anonymous, used a smartphone app developed by the third-party vendor, Jackpocket, to purchase 20 tickets for the drawing and one of them matched all six numbers in the Lotto Texas draw.
More: The latest effort to overhaul the Texas lottery could come with a hefty price tag. Here's why.
Around the same time, the Lottery Commission's allowance of third-party ticket vendors, known in the industry as lottery courier companies, was coming under increasingly harsh criticism from several high-ranking state elected officials because the 1991 statute that established the state-run gambling operation expressly forbids using a telephone to play the games.
Between the time the Feb. 17 jackpot was won and the winner had come forward, Gov. Greg Abbott had ordered the Texas Rangers to investigate circumstances surrounding the ticket purchase as well as a separate bulk purchase of more than $24 million of Lotto tickets through the use of a courier company that resulted in the buyer claiming the $95 million jackpot in April 2023.
The lucky ticket in the Feb. 17 drawing was purchased at an Austin outlet called Winners Corner, which is owned by Jackpocket, a lottery courier affiliated with the sports betting company DraftKings.
More: Texas Lottery fines its top vendor $180K for political donations. How IGT is fighting back
The winner told the Statesman in March that she was not part of a bulk purchasing operation and expressed disappointment that her good fortune had become entangled with a political and legislative battle that has nothing to do with her.
"I've gone through frustration and being sad and stressed," she said in an interview after the Statesman granted her request for anonymity because of privacy concerns. "And now I'm just angry."
The Lottery Commission declined to comment on the pending litigation.
The courier controversy prompted the Senate to pass legislation that would dismantle the five-member commission appointed by Abbott to oversee the lottery's operation, and instead transfer its duties to the Texas Commission on Licensing and Regulation. The legislation, Senate Bill 3070, would allow the actual lottery games, which bring in about $2 million annually to the state, to continue.
The proposal also expressly bans the use of lottery couriers in Texas.
The House State Affairs Committee this week advanced SB 3070 to the full House for consideration, but the measure has not yet been set for debate. The legislative session ends June 2.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Lotto Texas jackpot winner files suit demanding payment from lottery
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