Latest news with #Howry
The Hill
03-06-2025
- Business
- The Hill
Judge orders Texas Lottery Commission to protect $83.5 million of disputed funds won in February jackpot
AUSTIN (Nexstar) — A Travis County judge issued a temporary restraining order against the Texas Lottery Commission (TLC) and its acting executive director from spending any of the $83.5 million a Houston woman won in a February Lotto Texas jackpot. None of the jackpot has been paid out because the Texas Rangers are currently investigating the win — along with an April 2023 jackpot win — to see if there was any foul play involved. The judge wrote in the ruling that the Texas woman 'will be irreparably harmed if Defendant Sergio Rey, in his official capacity as acting executive director for the Texas Lottery Commission causes the $83,500,000 jackpot prize to be diminished, wasted, or paid to another before the merits of Plaintiff's claims are fully and finally adjudicated.' The ruling comes the same day a bill to end the TLC was sent to the Governor's desk for final approval. Senate Bill 3070 would eliminate the commission and transfer the operation of the lottery and charitable bingo to the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR). Randy Howry, the lottery winner's attorney, said he believes the restraining order will also apply to the TDLR if the Governor signs the bill into law. The restraining order has a limited lifespan. In this case it will only last three days because there is an evidentiary hearing on June 5 for a temporary injunction. A temporary injunction would protect those funds until a trial can happen. Howry and his client are worried the February lottery winnings could be spent on other winners or pay for other costs within the commission as it faces extinction. 'We're doing everything we can to protect these funds,' Howry explained. The Texas woman won the Feb. 17 lottery drawing worth $83.5 million. The woman purchased $20 worth of tickets on the Jackpocket app, a service that allows players to buy tickets over the phone. Those services are known as lottery couriers and they have become the target of lawmakers this session who believe they are against the laws written in the state and believe the lottery commission acted beyond its means to allow couriers to operate in Texas. Some lottery courier services were involved in helping a single entity, known as Rook TX, purchase and print more than $25 million worth of tickets in a 72-hour time span in April of 2023. That number of tickets nearly guaranteed the entity would have the winning ticket for a $95 million jackpot. This session lawmakers have questioned the TLC and its commissioners about how something like that could happen. Lawsuits have been filed against those courier services and the former executive director of the commission. In February, a week after the Texas woman won the jackpot, the TLC said it was banning lottery courier services and the Governor directed the Texas Rangers to investigate those two wins. Howry said he and his client were told by the commission they could not be paid out while the Rangers investigated. However, Howry says he and his client have not been questioned by any agency regarding the February drawing.
Yahoo
02-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Judge orders Texas Lottery Commission to protect $83.5 million of disputed funds won in February jackpot
AUSTIN (Nexstar) — A Travis County judge issued a temporary restraining order against the Texas Lottery Commission (TLC) and its acting executive director from spending any of the $83.5 million a Houston woman won in a February Lotto Texas jackpot. None of the jackpot has been paid out because the Texas Rangers are currently investigating the win — along with an April 2023 jackpot win — to see if there was any foul play involved. The judge wrote in the ruling that the Texas woman 'will be irreparably harmed if Defendant Sergio Rey, in his official capacity as acting executive director for the Texas Lottery Commission causes the $83,500,000 jackpot prize to be diminished, wasted, or paid to another before the merits of Plaintiff's claims are fully and finally adjudicated.' The ruling comes the same day a bill to end the TLC was sent to the Governor's desk for final approval. Senate Bill 3070 would eliminate the commission and transfer the operation of the lottery and charitable bingo to the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR). Temporary Restraining Order against TLCDownload Randy Howry, the lottery winner's attorney, said he believes the restraining order will also apply to the TDLR if the Governor signs the bill into law. The restraining order has a limited lifespan. In this case it will only last three days because there is an evidentiary hearing on June 5 for a temporary injunction. A temporary injunction would protect those funds until a trial can happen. Howry and his client are worried the February lottery winnings could be spent on other winners or pay for other costs within the commission as it faces extinction. 'We're doing everything we can to protect these funds,' Howry explained. The Texas woman won the Feb. 17 lottery drawing worth $83.5 million. The woman purchased $20 worth of tickets on the Jackpocket app, a service that allows players to buy tickets over the phone. Those services are known as lottery couriers and they have become the target of lawmakers this session who believe they are against the laws written in the state and believe the lottery commission acted beyond its means to allow couriers to operate in Texas. Some lottery courier services were involved in helping a single entity, known as Rook TX, purchase and print more than $25 million worth of tickets in a 72-hour time span in April of 2023. That number of tickets nearly guaranteed the entity would have the winning ticket for a $95 million jackpot. This session lawmakers have questioned the TLC and its commissioners about how something like that could happen. Lawsuits have been filed against those courier services and the former executive director of the commission. In February, a week after the Texas woman won the jackpot, the TLC said it was banning lottery courier services and the Governor directed the Texas Rangers to investigate those two wins. Howry said he and his client were told by the commission they could not be paid out while the Rangers investigated. However, Howry says he and his client have not been questioned by any agency regarding the February drawing. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
$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
Yahoo
20-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Jackpot withheld, $83 million winner 'caught in crossfire' amid lottery courier investigations
In Austin on Tuesday, a woman and her lawyer met with Texas Lottery Commission administrators and lawyers for an exchange: her winning lottery ticket for the $83.5 million it was supposed to be worth. But her lawyer, Randy Howry, said lottery commission officials told her she wouldn't be receiving the eight-figure payout until a series of investigations into her win and others were complete. Those investigations — one by Attorney General Ken Paxton and the other by the Texas Rangers, a division of the Department of Public Safety — were launched because the woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, bought the ticket through an online app run by a courier. 'She played by all the rules in play at the time,' Howry said of her client, who chose to buy tickets from a courier because of safety concerns. 'She should be paid her winnings, but she's being caught up because the politicians are now involved.' Lawmakers have scrutinized the state's lottery commission repeatedly throughout the current Legislative Session over the growing use of couriers — third-party services that enable online purchasing of lottery tickets — and expressed concerns the practice could enable unfair or illegal activity. The move to ban couriers in Texas has the woman who bought her 10 tickets through Jackpocket, the nation's largest courier, 'caught in the crossfire,' Howry said. After the $83.5 million Lotto Texas jackpot was won in February, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick publicly cast doubt on the legitimacy of the win and announced he would be opening an investigation into the lottery's dealings with couriers. The investigations by Paxton and the Texas Rangers followed shortly afterward. The commission confirmed in a statement to the Tribune that the payout is going through both internal and external review processes. 'The claim is being reviewed under the Commission's claim validation requirements and is the subject of external investigation,' a spokesperson with the lottery commission said. Also under investigation is a 2023 lottery win in which several entities bought 99% of the game's possible combinations with the help of retailers and a lottery courier business. That win, its legality which Patrick and other lawmakers question, also has cast doubt on the commission as a whole. Most major lottery jackpot winners choose to remain anonymous and state law provides protections for them, but Howry said his client feels she is being 'lumped in' with potentially illegal players needlessly. While there has yet to be any litigation filed regarding the jackpot, Howry said his client is considering it if the payout is withheld longer. 'The longer it takes for the lottery commission to be responsive to us, the more likely it is that that litigation will be filed,' Howry said. Couriers have been active and unregulated in Texas for years until late February, when the lottery commission announced it would move to ban the use of couriers entirely. While lawmakers have cast doubts on the legitimacy of the business, proponents of the services say they provide convenience and may actually be a safer way of playing the lottery than buying tickets in public. Howry's client is part of a growing number of Texans who had been using Jackpocket and other couriers to buy tickets. Jackpocket alone has sold over $550 million in tickets since it entered the state in 2018, according to the company. Jackpocket has since suspended its activities in Texas following the lottery commission's announcement, but other couriers are still selling tickets through their apps. Howry said the refusal to pay out the jackpot to his client is not being applied equally, as others are still claiming prizes won through courier services. He pointed out that the 2023 win was paid out at the time without issue. 'If there was a concern that the couriers were not a safe way to play this game, why didn't you stop it back then?' Howry said. Why did you make this decision two years later, when this person, who did play by the rules, won the lottery?' We can't wait to welcome you to the 15th annual Texas Tribune Festival, Texas' breakout ideas and politics event happening Nov. 13–15 in downtown Austin. Step inside the conversations shaping the future of education, the economy, health care, energy, technology, public safety, culture, the arts and so much more. Hear from our CEO, Sonal Shah, on TribFest 2025. TribFest 2025 is presented by JPMorganChase.
