Legislation outlawing lottery couriers makes it to Governor's desk
By Kate Northrop
A bill banning lottery courier services passed in both the Indiana House and Senate this week, meaning there is just one more step before it officially becomes illegal to sell lottery tickets via courier companies.
Indiana legislators in the House and Senate have successfully passed House Bill 1053, which would outlaw lottery courier services outright.
On Tuesday, April 22, the Indiana Senate voted 42-7 to pass a bill sponsored by Senators Ron Alting and Lonnie Randolph. The bill would make it a misdemeanor to operate a lottery courier service in Indiana, according to the Indiana Senate Republicans, with the motivation of limiting avenues that allow people to buy lottery tickets online. Selling lottery tickets online is illegal in Indiana.
"With the ever-changing world of online gaming and betting, lottery courier services have caused a lot of issues in states across the country," Alting said in a press release announcing the bill's advancement. "This bill would make Indiana more proactive in restricting the practice before it reaches our borders."
The move comes at a tumultuous time for lottery courier companies, which have been thrown into the spotlight since the Texas state government launched multiple investigations into $83.5 million and $95 million Lotto Texas jackpot wins that both involved lottery couriers.
"Online lotteries are not allowed in Indiana, and these couriers have skirted the law in other states — causing major issues for gaming regulators," Alting continued. "With this bill, Indiana would ensure we don't have an unregulated online lottery industry with millions of dollars at stake."
The investigations in Texas, spearheaded by the Texas Rangers, have not yet yielded any evidence or conclusions confirming illegal activities.
Should the Indiana bill pass, it would become a Class A misdemeanor to operate a lottery courier service, punishable by up to one year in prison and a fine of up to $5,000.
In addition to outlawing lottery courier services, the bill stipulates that the Hoosier Lottery Commission must adopt rules overseeing bulk purchases, although the legislation does not provide specific recommendations for what those rules should look like.
Just one day before the Senate passed the bill, the House voted 76-10 in favor. The bill now sits on Governor Mike Braun's desk, where it awaits his approval to be signed into law.
TX started something but if u don't live in state or visiting to buy
shld not play/win
A smart and brilliant move by the Hoosier lawmakers.
* l guess Indiana politicians are counting on housebound folks to ask their neighbors to run errands to purchase lottery tickets & scratchers for them or call a Uber to pick them up to run to the store. One wonders which service is cheaper.
Yeah, that's why I despise these blanket bans. They really disenfranchise people like the elderly, the homebound, people in rural areas, shift workers, etc. There is no good reason to outright ban courier services. If the state wants to have some kind of regulations on courier services, that makes sense. A ban does not.
* Totally agree Todd. To deprive some elderly folk who don't have the means of getting around due to no fault of their own and robbing them of the joy they may get from playing the lottery as entertainment is heartless.
Do you think each state should implement to purchase on their website
I mean how long have couriers been doing this since Covid?
I think more states will follow suit. It comes down to having any lottery or having a flawed system which can be rigged by those with deep pockets.
The alternative to outlawing couriers is limit their ability to print/sell tickets, limit the number of terminals, and/or limit the number of tickets a terminal can print in a day.
All of these are implemented in Texas.
Better for states to do something, even if it has flaws, than to be facing lawsuits for failing to protect the interest of all players.
I agree with most of what you have said
I still think that paragraph 2 of your response:"The alternative to outlawing couriers is limit their ability to print/sell tickets, limit the number of terminals, and/or limit the number of tickets a terminal can print in a day". ma
may still be defeated by the operators setting up multiple stations in different addresses and/or using an array of masked entities as pseudo-names to camouflage, cloak, disguise and conceal the real true structure of their operations.
I am eager to learn of the parameters you could propose, if given the chance on how to make ¶ 2 work.
Couriers have nothing to do with "rigging a lottery" (which itself is a loaded/incorrect term). I assume by "rigging" you mean someone buying all the possible combinations. THAT IS NOT DONE THROUGH A COURIER. It would be too expensive, because couriers charge extra money per ticket/order.
Just because Texas legislators and the New York Times are unable to differentiate between two separate concepts does not mean that we at Lottery Post cannot correctly separate these two concepts. What they do is called GASLIGHTING. We don't do that here.
Couriers are not the same as buying all the combinations. They are two separate things. Stopping people from buying all the combinations IS NOT ACCOMPLISHED BY BANNING COURIERS. Jackpots have been "purchased" (buying all the combinations) without couriers. Couriers have NOTHING to do with buying all the combinations.
I hope I have completely covered all possible angles of this gaslighting, because it would be awesome to finally be able to stop pointing this out and have real conversations about these two topics.
This is completely stupid. It's like throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Courier services have an important role to play. If you don't like them, regulate them. What is next, banning the lottery? Really, really dumb.
Good job of explaining it again but a couple of members seem unable to accept or process your clear explanation. They want to spin it into an overly sensational conspiracy.
Completely agree. I was telling Todd that as a journalist I felt my eyes roll to the back of my head seeing the word "rigging" in the latest NYT article. This is an interesting topic, and I absolutely love the discussion surrounding it, but I cannot stand the misconceptions and misinformation when it comes to couriers especially when a newspaper like the NYT has so many readers and such a great deal of influence.
Bonus - the subheader in said article goes like:
"Texas lottery executives blessed a scheme that ensured one player would win a $95 million jackpot in 2023."
Sweet mother of ball drawings please help me
Typical for the NYT. That is why people need to do their own research vs simply deferring to legacy media and letting legacy media do the thinking for them.
It is like the legacy media telling us the economy is crashing when the markets actually started wobbling last summer and were overdue for a correction.