Lottery terminal and vending machine limits placed on retailers, ticket buying restrictions enacted
By Kate Northrop
On Friday, Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed SB 3070 into law, which abolishes the Texas Lottery Commission, transfers their oversight to another state department, and enacts limits on retailers and ticket purchases.
Following months of arduous back-and-forth about the future of the Texas Lottery in this year's legislative session, the Texas Lottery Commission will cease to exist this coming fall, but lottery operations will continue under a different arm of state government.
Beginning Sept. 1, 2025, "all functions and activities performed by the Texas Lottery Commission relating to the state lottery... are transferred to the Texas Commission of Licensing and Regulation or the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation," the bill reads.
References to a "Lottery Commission" no longer refer to the Texas Lottery Commission, but rather the commission related to the Department of Licensing and Regulation. Full-time Texas Lottery Commission employees convert to their department-equivalent positions, and any further mentions of "Director" or "Executive Director" are now classified as Executive Director of the Department of Licensing and Regulation.
But while the sun sets on the Texas Lottery Commission, the bill instead calls for the creation of a "lottery advisory committee" to "provide external expertise on the lottery," as well as offer insights to the commission on the lottery industry to help guide regulatory decisions. Its members will represent a "balance of interests" made up of representatives of the public, licensed retailers, interest groups with divergent viewpoints on the lottery, and entities associated with or benefitting from lottery revenue.
At least three of these members must have notable experience in lottery law enforcement, lottery legal matters, and lottery finance. These members would not receive any compensation for their roles on the advisory committee and would be serving voluntarily.
The bill includes new language that prohibits the facilitation of lottery play through an Internet or mobile application, which would, by its description, broadly ban lottery couriers. More specifically, a player cannot order the purchase of a ticket, and an individual cannot accept an order for a ticket from a player or arrange to purchase a ticket on behalf of a person playing the lottery.
Anyone who violates the rule commits a Class A misdemeanor, which comes with a penalty of up to one year in jail and a fine of up to $4,000.
Additionally, a player may only purchase lottery tickets in person at a brick-and-mortar retailer during the retailer's normal business hours, and a retailer must also verify the age of each ticket purchaser at the point of sale using methods and guidelines prescribed by the commission.
The bill entails new limits on ticket purchases and retail equipment. For example, a retailer cannot sell more than 100 lottery tickets in a single transaction, and if violated, would commit a Class B misdemeanor punishable by up to 180 days in jail and a fine of up to $2,000.
The commission will also limit the number of self-service vending machines, lottery terminals, and other pieces of ticket printing equipment at a retailer proportionate to the amount of business conducted at each specific location. However, the department will not provide more than five total vending machines, terminals, and other associated equipment to a single retailer. These changes, including the 100-ticket purchase limit, are effective immediately.
The Sunset Advisory Commission will still have the responsibility of conducting a "limited-scope review" of the state lottery in 2029 to decide the future of the state lottery. They will evaluate "whether the department has sufficient tools, programs, and procedures to ensure the integrity of the state lottery program," analyze the progress or success of the transfer of the Lottery to the department, and essentially determine whether the department is fit to run the state lottery.
If the Sunset Review does not happen, the bill stipulates, the Lottery is abolished on Sept. 1, 2029.
The handoff of all the Texas Lottery Commission's records, contracts, equipment, and all other manners of operations to the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation will happen on Sept. 1, 2025.
Ok, will just have to see if the lottery continues under new law.
They are shutting down the "Lottery Commission" retitling and calling it the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, which in basic human terms means "Under New Management by the Old Management" how original.
ok wait a minute. if i'm physically located in texas and i text my buddy "chad" (also physically located in texas) on my mobile phone to ask him to pick me up a lottery ticket while he's out running errands or whatever, and then he gives me the ticket and i pay him back a couple bucks, does that mean one or both of us has broken texas law??
Not if you both keep your mouths shut.....
TX really made a mess, not too surprised.
If only we could start a rally, to save the lottery. Telling them to do a sunset review.
So if the ticket wins big, during the claim process, and they ask: "how did you buy the ticket?" What are you going to say then? Unless you are claiming jointly then there may be a problem, especially knowing they may check camera footage of the store you purchased the ticket from.
My reply to Brock was a "tongue in cheek" answer.
But TLC and TX legislature is making a mess an even bigger mess. They effectively eliminated "pool players" where typically a person in charge of a pool buys tickets for the other members of the pool.
The bill includes new language that prohibits the facilitation of lottery play through an Internet or mobile application, which would, by its description, broadly ban lottery couriers. More specifically, a player cannot order the purchase of a ticket, and an individual cannot accept an order for a ticket from a player or arrange to purchase a ticket on behalf of a person playing the lottery.
Yes. It says order or arrange. Very broad language.
If you had a huge win with your facts, you could argue it was an informal social "favor" between friends and hope a court narrows and interprets the law as being overbroad. 50/50 odds at best.
It is a big jump in logic for the Texas lottery needing and wanting to ban couriers and then further extending it to a daughter buying her invalid aunt a lottery ticket.
suddenly in texas a physically disabled person can more easily buy guns, alcohol, tobacco, and a naughty magazine than a lottery ticket.
I just do not understand if the Texas lottery has even an entry level attorney on staff or retains an outside law firm.
Assuming they do not want to prevent someone picking up a ticket for a friend (and the way it is written, they do seem to want to ban any third party purchases), they could have easily clarified this issue with a written policy. "While the Texas lottery does not intend to ban the infrequent and minimal personal purchases of lottery tickets by third party Texas residents for Texas resident friends and family, any person accepting any form of payment beyond the original cost of the lottery ticket will result in that ticket being declared null and void."
These laws should not apply to games like the Pick 3/4. They have nothing to do with the whole controversy of buying jackpots.
Some of these Texas lawmakers own brick-and-mortar stores that sell lottery tickets, and now players can only buy tickets at these stores. This is BS.
I bet you the Texas Lottery get bought by a foreign company.