Texas Lottery refuses to acknowledge ticket holder as official jackpot winner
By Kate Northrop
AUSTIN, Tex. — The woman who sued the Texas Lottery for withholding an $83.5 million Lotto Texas jackpot payout while keeping her identity anonymous has publicly revealed her name in testimony as part of her ongoing battle to receive the winnings.
A Houston-area lottery player publicized her identity in a bid to draw more attention to her ongoing legal battle against the Texas Lottery for an $83.5 million Lotto Texas jackpot payout.
The court documents filed on May 19 refer to "Jane Doe" as the "legitimate and undisputed winner of a $83,500,000.00 Texas Lottery jackpot." During her testimony, she ended her three-month-long spell of anonymity and revealed her identity.
Kristen Moriarty, a mother of two, described herself as an average person while testifying in a Travis County civil court hearing.
"I'm really boring," Moriarty said on Tuesday.
Her lawyer, Randy Howry, told KETK that she decided to name herself publicly after fearing she was not being taken seriously.
"Tired of being ignored," he said in a text to reporters. "Ready to fight."
Texas Lottery Acting Deputy Executive Director Sergio Rey also testified at the hearing. The ticketholder of the $83.5 million prize named him the primary defendant in a lawsuit she filed last month.
Rey said during his testimony that the Texas Lottery Commission (TLC) does not officially consider Moriarty the rightful jackpot winner.
"We know there's a winner," he said on the stand after being asked if he believes Moriarty won the prize drawn on Feb. 17, 2025. "We know she's a claimant."
In an interview with Lottery Post in March, Howry confirmed that the Lottery had validated the ticket, but that the delay in payment was solely a result of the state's own investigation related to couriers.
However, Rey said that, prior to stepping into his current leadership role at the Lottery, the TLC had decided on their own to halt the claims process while the Texas Rangers conducted their investigation into the drawing.
TLC Validations Specialist Sheila Medina testified that she was present when Moriarty and her lawyer presented the jackpot-winning ticket at the TLC's offices. According to Medina, Moriarty did complete the winner's claim form but said that the agency did not complete the ticket validation process. The technicality makes Moriarty a claimant in the Lottery's eyes, not a definite winner.
Rey fielded questions from Moriarty's legal counsel, who asked what else the payout process required in order for her to receive the prize. Rey replied that there was more paperwork involved and alluded that halting the claims process was the result of a decision that occurred prior to him stepping into his new position.
Moriarty filed a lawsuit against the Lottery in fears that the funds for her payout would be allocated elsewhere or used for other lottery prize payments. In it, she asks a judge to protect the winnings, declare her the rightful winner of the $83.5 million jackpot, and subsequently demand that Rey award her the prize.
Rey further testified that the winnings are being held in a fund separate from the one the Lottery uses for operating costs, and that the money will remain there until a winner claims the prize. If no jackpot winner is officially declared, the prize will be directed to the Foundation School fund for state education.
Moriarty emotionally expressed that she "did not do anything wrong" when she purchased $20 worth of lottery tickets through Jackpocket and when one of those plays happened to win the jackpot. Over the past few months, she has maintained that she completed the steps required of her to secure the prize.
Another hearing is set for June 17, during which a judge may issue an order to protect the funds for the prize and decide whether the presiding court has jurisdiction over the case.
Unbelievable do they think she was in Kahoot with the couriers
all along TX has been allowing players to play thru couriers and getting the $$ now they wanna cry wolf
I hope she wins and gets damages too.
The TX lottery/politicians handling this mess are beginning to look like cow turds. They are stalling and telling half truths and 2-stepping over the truth trying to see if there is a legal way to deny the claim. This is unacceptable. Just pay the lady.
To me this isn't a lottery commission, it's more like a kangaroo commission. If she claimed the ticket and the mess was created by this commission it she be dissolved.
This is crazy! Pay them! They played according to Texas rules. They won. Pay them.
That sucks that she had to break her anuminity to try to get paid.
The problem as I see it is that the Texas Lottery made their first mistake when they essentially caved to that attention-seeking woman who makes her living by trying to make the lottery look bad. You can't appease a person like that. When she initially started bad-mouthing couriers, the lottery should have ignored her. Instead, they should have explained to the public that no, couriers are not bad, and they have nothing to do with lottery jackpots being "purchased". The entire problem with this poor winner would never have happened. And Ryan Mindell would not have needed to resign.
Such unfortunate, poor decisions made early on have had terrible ripple effects.
💔💔💔TLC has been get a lot of bad press for a while now. If they are going to shut it down... then they need to do it... A lot of players have abandoned it all together and now they just go to the casino 🎰
Trust issues 😞
Unbelievable. Pay her.
Agreed artist ,
She played by the rules when she played.
If TLC decided to ban players who used couriers at that time, then it's too late for that.
Pay the winner already and admit your mistake.
This is totally ridiculous.
C'est la vie (That's life)
Deal with it appropriately
At some point, the state lottery will have to respond to the complaint and give a reason for denial of payment. I do not understand their secrecy here.
Can her lawyer appeal to a higher court? There is no excuse for this. She bought her ticket legally and won. Pay her with interest.
Generally no appeal at this point until the case is decided. If this court fails to order the safeguarding of the money, she can appeal to the next level for an injunction on that issue ASAP.
I am wondering if the money is still there.
No, the problem started in 2023 when the Rook TX group purchased all lottery combinations for $25M through courier service Jackpocket or something similar and won $95M. No one thought anything of it at the time. Then in 2025 a women won $85M in Texas using courier service Jackpot. Someone then said, wait a minutes there must be something going wrong with courier services in Texas. We have to put a stop to this and deny this woman her money because she must be in kahoots with the courier service. We can't let another large jackpot slip through our fingers again because of a Texas courier service. I hope this woman gets all her money because I don't believe she did anything wrong.