Legislator wants to shut down Texas Lottery if they don't comply
By Kate Northrop
A Texas State Senator threatened to shut down the Texas Lottery if they were not to enforce a Senate bill prohibiting lottery couriers in the state.
Senator Bob Hall has made it clear that he would choose to defund the Texas Lottery should they violate a potential state law banning lottery courier companies.
Hall has consistently delivered scathing criticisms of the Texas Lottery since a purchasing group based in New Jersey "bought" a $95 million Lotto Texas jackpot in April 2023 with the help of lottery courier companies, with one of his most provocative claims being the supposed existence of a "crime syndicate inside the Texas Lottery."
During the Senate Committee on State Affairs meeting this week, the Senate passed SB28 by a vote of 31-0, which would make it a criminal offense to play the lottery or facilitate playing the lottery by phone or through the Internet.
SB28 outlines several scenarios that would effectively become illegal: purchasing lottery tickets through a mobile or Internet application, accepting a ticket order or selling tickets over the Internet, or arranging to purchase a ticket on behalf of a person playing the lottery. These limitations were largely created with banning lottery couriers in mind.
The Texas Lottery Commission has already declared its stance against lottery couriers, since it announced a new policy banning courier services on Monday, but this bill would go a step beyond Lottery Commission policy by making couriers illegal under state law.
In other words, violating the Lottery's policy in its current state could merely mean a retailer jeopardizing their license. However, the bill criminalizes the behavior, something that the Lottery does not have the authority to do. Those who do break the law would face legal repercussions of fines and possible prison time for up to one year.
The Texas Lottery would be required to enforce the law if it passes. If it doesn't, Hall warned, it should be shut down.
"In Section 1 of your bill, the Lottery Commission is mandated... to adopt rules to enforce the prohibitions against facilitating the play of the lottery through courier apps," Senator Angela Paxton addressed Hall. "Would you please speak to what would happen if the Lottery Commission does not adopt such rules?"
"We would just zero out their budget," Hall responded. "It's real easy for them. If all they did was just revert back to the law as it was passed, they [lottery couriers] would go away."
"Zeroing" out the Lottery's budget would basically mean an operational shutdown, a death sentence for a state lottery in Texas. There would be no funding to support the Lottery's operations, including prize payouts, facilities, staff, marketing, and its main product — lottery tickets. The state could potentially lose out on approximately $2 billion annually, a majority of which goes to the Foundation School Fund.
Hall also argued in his opening remarks that the Multi-State Lottery Association, which oversees the Powerball multi-state draw game, had adopted rules under previous leadership that made it easier for Texas to become more lenient toward lottery couriers over time. It was, he reasoned, a valid reason to consider ending Powerball in Texas.
"The Texas Legislature voted to join the Multi-State Lottery Association to sell games like Powerball, but our state's participation in membership should be reconsidered," Hall said.
However, Lottery Executive Director Ryan Mindell made it clear that the Lottery Commission has no intention of veering from the path Legislature lays out for it, and that the agency would adjust its policies to abide by the current law.
"I plan to bring to the board next Tuesday rulemaking that will make it clear that any retailer that works with a lottery ticket courier — we will take action against your license," Mindell affirmed.
Hall had previously attempted to ban lottery couriers in the past. His Senate Bill 1820 for the 2023-2024 Texas Legislative Session passed unanimously in the Senate but later died in the House.
With the latest version of the bill unanimously succeeding in the Senate once more, SB28 now faces the House as its predecessor did before.
It's heating up, geesh what abt these other states wonder will this prompt all states to have online system to prevent couriers
These courier services have lent support to complex businesses to defeat the dollar and a dream themes for most everyday lottery players and this is simply not good to the everyday player as the playing field is no longer equal and this is what the law makers are trying to curb.
Exactly they hv the funds to do
excited to see if they can manage the $5 MM ticket
Still more questions than answers.
Like how is it possible that an investment group in NJ able to purchase 99% of all combinations using an online service or app?
And how did they zero in on using Lottery.com's terminals in Austin and Waco? How did they know these people had the necessary equipment and supplies to accomplish the job?
And don't expect me to believe someone in NJ typed in each of those combinations on a phone or computer.
Peter Sullivan offered half the answer that these groups are watching/ targeting the lotteries where the payout is grater than the permutations, but that doesn't explain how they accomplish the buyout.
It appears that these services have preprinted playslips or use computer printed playslips because those people in NJ can't and aren't filling out and shipping 25 million playslips to Texas in time to have them sent through a terminal in time for the drawing. That's where Senator hall is getting his "crime syndicate" association.
I hope he's wrong, but he is right on ending these third party couriers which allow and encourage these organized groups to operate behind the scenes.
He's right that once you shut these activities down they will move on. Texas will no longer be a target.
Once third party couriers are shut down these people have to physically come into the state, bring their 25 million playslips and find enough terminals willing and capable of printing all of them in two/three days
And when the owners of those terminals which sell, pick a number, 10000 tickets a week start printing 10000 an hour, you got red flags that something is amiss.
When those terminal owners request supplies to print 1000000 and need them yesterday, you got a red flag.
When you see multiple terminal owners requesting this amount of supplies another red flag.
But these safeguards are defeated with third party couriers.
As I said last night if the decision is no lottery or no third party couriers, bye third party couriers. You don't add anything to the lottery and you compromise the safeguards.
G
I subscribed... please post the updates
According to Google, the Texas lottery generates $2.1billion for the Texas public school system each year. That’s 2.3% of their total budget. With 380,000 total teachers in Texas public schools, a 2.3% cut would be 11,400 layoffs. I don’t see that happening… unless Senator Bob Hall never wants to get reelected.
All that said, I’m not a fan of lottery couriers as I’ve seen them win jackpots in both Oregon and Colorado when I’ve lived there. I always get excited when I see a lottery jackpot that was won in my state, but then I see it was actually won by someone elsewhere, it sucks. When I lived in Oregon, we had a jackpot won by someone in the middle east (Iraq, I think).
"It appears that these services have preprinted playslips or use computer printed playslips because those people in NJ can't and aren't filling out and shipping 25 million playslips to Texas in time to have them sent through a terminal in time for the drawing. That's where Senator hall is getting his "crime syndicate" association."
"And when the owners of those terminals which sell, pick a number, 10000 tickets a week start printing 10000 an hour, you got red flags that something is amiss.
When those terminal owners request supplies to print 1000000 and need them yesterday, you got a red flag.
When you see multiple terminal owners requesting this amount of supplies another red flag."
Great points garyo!
It's an important issue to me. I've spent quite a bit over the years playing the games of Texas. And without referring to a spreadsheet, like almost everyone else, I know I'm in the red.
I'm irritated about the whole situation. I'm irritated that the laws/regulations were in place to prevent it and the lottery commission (Gary Grief) ignored those. I'm irritated these people making headlines know far more than what they are saying, yet the continue to talk about them as if everybody already knows.
They allude to the fact that the law expressedly started the lottery as a game of chance, never saying the lottery is a game if chance. It was never meant to be a commodity for sale to the highest bidder or an entity looking to profit from a buyout.
Why not say it? Why not point out that Texas has no state tax and the party that bought out the 95 million dollar lottery prize more than doubled their money ($59 million). And the 83.5 million dollar payout would mean a $52 million, more than twice the $25 million necessary to buy it.
Say The Texas lottery has become a consumer product for profit, not the game of chance that was intended.
And the Texas lottery commission under Gary Grief let it become what it is by ignoring the laws designed to prevent that from happening. He possibly encouraged that process by wooing Lottery.com to relocate into the state so they could sell tickets from terminals physically located in the state as the law requires.
His misguided view of growing the lottery may not have been with criminal intent but somewhere along the way the line between what was legal and what was in the best interest of the lottery became blurred by ticket sales.
Say The lottery has been so slack in adhering to the law/regulations in place we're now faced with forced extremes in the other direction, an overcorrection, to bring balance back to what was envisioned to be a game.
I could go on and on and on but I prefer not too. I bought Powerball tickets tonight. Not the usual Powerball and Texas Lotto.
I'm irritated that the people put in place to prevent any of this were willing participants.
Then the legislation group had to do something to make it safer than that!
They kept the same slips from last time
they must have a way to ask each of the 30 machines to print so many tickets or they are hiring some people to sit there and put tickets in the machine for 3 days in shifts
Yea would love to know if u got 30 machines and each prints out 1million each
they had to send the $$ to ATX thru an account
"When those terminal owners request supplies to print 1000000 and need them yesterday, you got a red flag."
With 25 million possible outcomes logistics are a nightmare at best. Back in the day when some lotto games had less than 10 million possible outcomes, it was purposed that a terminal be programed to print an "all ways" ticket. Horse and dog races have trifecta and superfecta "all" tickets using "1 all", "2 all", etc.
If the Texas Lottery is keeping 50% of every dollar wagered, selling out any game can only add to the profits. The logic of not allowing it is similar to the Mass Lottery's Cash Winfall game. While it actually added to the lottery profit, they decided it was unfair to average lottery players.
Stack this stuff is so deep and complicated we're still getting new information
We learned from Lottery.com's lawyer, Greg Potts, that Lottery.com is already under investigation by the US Dept of Justice involving actions of it's prior board of directors
Greg Potts also told the lawmakers that Lottery.com asked if this were legal and were assured by the lottery commission they had no problem with it.
iGT testified that Winners Circle was in possession of 47 terminals, not the 30 the Lt Governor thought.
The buyout was facilitated using QR codes to rapidly scan the combinations directly into the machines. And extra workers were hired for the task
The lawmakers outlined 13 different provisions of state law believed/alleged to have been circumvented including sales to minors and lottery officials plus the restriction on influencing the outcome.
They noted that courier services account for about $173 million of the billions that is spent annually on the lottery in Texas. Basically a small portion is derived from courier services. Over the last five years it was estimated third party couriers contributed $550 million total. Still a small amount.
There are 18 states that license courier services. Only three actually license third party couriers.
Answers a slowly coming out. There was even talk of instituting a regulatory commission in Texas.
Once all the "Don't Mess with Texas" was done and they got some answers it was pretty clear that nobody, and that includes me, wants to "Death to the Texas Lottery."
G
I lived there in the 90's and this was unheard of . I played the lottery and never heard of these far fetched accusations. Politicians in NM tried to shut the lottery down but we're ignored.