Texas Lottery faces scrutiny amid jackpot controversies and leadership shakeup

A Texas Lottery show promoting enactment for Texas acquisition and veterans stands wrong Lucky Rudy's successful Rosenberg, Texas, connected May 5, 2025. Lucio Vasquez. hide caption

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Lucio Vasquez.

ROSENBERG, TEXAS – At Lucky Rudy's, a convenience store extracurricular of Houston, 30-year-old Eli Sierra holds up a caller scratch-off. Buying lottery and scratch-off tickets has been a elemental contented helium shares with his woman — a small spark of excitement, not a superior investment.

"I'll spell bargain her immoderate flowers and I'll bargain her lottery tickets," Sierra said. "I cognize she loves the unreserved to beryllium like, 'Am I gonna win? Am I gonna win? Am I gonna win?'"

Americans spent much than $110 cardinal trying their luck connected the lottery past year, according to the North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries.

Among the largest systems is the Texas Lottery, which brought successful much than $8 cardinal successful 2024 – the 4th highest successful income crossed the nation. Profits spell to fund nationalist education successful the state.

But the aboriginal of the Texas Lottery looks clouded.

After jackpot controversies, aggregate resignations of lottery officials and a prohibition connected online lotto summons sales, the strategy is present nether probe by aggregate authorities agencies. The scrutiny has besides sparked enactment astatine the Texas Capitol, wherever authorities lawmakers are pushing caller authorities intended to rein successful the system.

The relation of courier services

At the halfway of the statement are online courier services, which fto users bargain authoritative lotto tickets online without stepping into a store. A scanned transcript of the summons is sent to the lawsuit arsenic impervious of purchase. Couriers complaint a interest for purchasing and managing tickets.

Questions astir the legality of specified services emerged aft 2 monolithic jackpot wins successful Texas: an $83 cardinal prize claimed successful April 2023 done an online courier work and a seperate $95 cardinal payout earlier this twelvemonth secured by a radical that bought astir each 25.8 cardinal imaginable fig combinations.

The second was an effort orchestrated by a antheral from Malta and financed by a London-based betting company, according to the Houston Chronicle and The Wall Street Journal.

"Texans indispensable beryllium capable to spot successful our state's lottery strategy and cognize that the lottery is conducted with integrity and lawfully," Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said successful February. "Texans merit a lottery that is just and transparent for everyone."

In February, Abbott ordered an investigation into the state's lottery system; respective authorities agencies followed suit. The Texas Lottery Commission responded by banning couriers from operating wrong the state.

And past month, the commission's enforcement manager resigned. Other lottery officials person besides stepped down.

"The Lottery Commission has enabled a private-public partnership, led by the authorities agency, to prosecute successful a transgression conspiracy to defraud Texans," said authorities Sen. Bob Hall, who authored a bill being considered during this year's legislative league that would marque online lottery income a misdemeanor successful the state.

The authorities of Texas didn't antecedently modulate couriers. Only 3 states passim the U.S. presently modulate them, according to a 2024 report from the Texas House Committee connected Licensing and Administrative Procedures.

Hall says this deficiency of oversight has tarnished the integrity of the system, "creating a transgression enactment really operating wrong our authorities government."

In a connection to NPR, the committee said its apical precedence was "ensuring the integrity, security, honesty and fairness" of the Texas Lottery. The bureau announced its ain investigations into couriers successful February.

But the couriers themselves accidental they've been legally operating for years and that they privation to beryllium regulated. One of these companies is Lotto.com, which sued the state's lottery commission implicit the prohibition connected couriers successful precocious April.

"Regulated lottery couriers enactment integrity and enactment the operations and continued maturation of the Texas Lottery," said Rob Porter, main ineligible serviceman for the company.

Some lawmakers person projected bills to regulate courier services, portion others person adjacent suggested abolishing the authorities lottery completely.

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick says immoderate happens, nationalist spot indispensable travel first.

"Those who play the lottery indispensable beryllium assured that each crippled is honorable and you person a just accidental to win. If we cannot warrant that, past the lottery should not continue," Patrick said.

As for Eli Sierra, helium says he'll support buying tickets for his woman – controversies oregon not.

"It's conscionable thing that makes her happy," helium said.

After we spoke, Sierra scratched disconnected his summons – and walked distant $10 richer.