Idaho legislation moves along bill to ban bulk lottery ticket purchases

By Kate Northrop

The Idaho Lottery's initial suspicions that a bulk purchaser was at play during a jackpot run that resulted in an $877,800 Idaho Cash win were correct when it was confirmed that an entity known for executing jackpot buyouts came forward to claim the prize.

In response to restless national sentiment surrounding the nature of jackpot buyouts and a recent $877,800 Idaho Cash win, Idaho state legislation has surged a bill forward that would ban bulk lottery ticket purchases.

In September 2025, Idaho Lottery officials witnessed their Idaho Cash draw game jackpot reach a record level of $877,800, the highest prize the in-state draw game had ever seen.

Sales data for the Sept. 30 drawing did not suggest that a courier was involved at all, rather it pointed to a coordinated effort that saw multiple individuals visiting physical retail locations to buy a large quantity of tickets.

The Lottery put out a memo saying they received reports of "pushy and argumentative" individuals who were attempting "to make abnormally large purchases of tickets," Idaho Lottery Director of Lottery Security Tony Pittz said in the statement.

Those suspicions of a bulk purchaser turned out to be true.

On Dec. 8, 2025, a Wyoming-based entity called Mudspell Pizza LLC came forward to claim the prize, represented by Wyoming lawyer Andrew Pierce.

Lottery winners cannot remain anonymous in Idaho, and even claiming under an LLC does not entirely shield the winner's identity from public view. Claims and operating agreement paperwork released to Lottery Post through an open records request to the Idaho Lottery revealed that Mudspell Pizza LLC is owned by Black Swan capital, LLC. More specifically, the authorized representative and manager of the LLC is Manuel Montori.

Montori founded Black Swan Capital, LLC — more simply known as Black Swan within the lottery industry — a group of four Princeton University graduates who have garnered an infamous reputation among state lotteries for their efforts in organizing bulk ticket purchases to win large local jackpots and top prizes in scratch-off games. The other members include Matthew Gibbons, Hannah Davinroy, and Zoë Buonaiuto.

A member of Black Swan confirmed that this $877,800 Idaho Cash jackpot win was a result of an attempt at a bulk buyout. After taxes, they received $620,604.60.

One of their most widely publicized wins is a $5 million top prize from a Missouri Lottery scratch-off game, the conclusion of several weeks' worth of work that involved purchasing 20 books of tickets three times a week from a convenience store at about $8,000 per visit. The strategy involves targeting games that are close to ending and still have a major top prize left.

In 2020, Montori cashed in 61 Indiana Lottery scratch-off tickets in one day, totaling $88,000 in winnings. Other major wins include a $10 million prize in North Carolina in 2022, $1 million and $100,000 prizes in Washington, D.C. in 2019, and a $2.6 million Maryland Lottery prize, the Wall Street Journal reported.

However, not all bulk buyout attempts are successful. In November 2024 at the La Fleur's Lottery World Conference in Austin, Texas, Lottery Post heard Oklahoma Lottery Director Jay Finks describe how Black Swan members had targeted one of their in-state scratch-off games that still had a $5 million prize up for grabs. They had parked themselves in a hotel and spent three weeks scratching off tickets but left the state empty-handed, Finks recalled.

Some state lottery directors have expressed that the organized practice of bulk purchases does not concern them since these groups are still risking that they will walk away from the effort without a profit should someone else win a jackpot or should they emerge unsuccessful in locating that coveted top prize.

"How is this any different than an investment group buying stocks to gain an advantage over time in the marketplace?" Maryland Lottery Director John Martin said on a podcast in January 2025. "I don't know that it is. You can take a holier-than-thou attitude and say, well, 'It's not right, it's not fair.' But again, it's not illegal, and it's probably not a bad business strategy."

But after witnessing the backlash of a $95 million jackpot buyout event in Texas in 2023, more and more states have become increasingly wary of the national attention reaching their doorstep. Given the growing number of states who are enacting their own solutions against the behavior, the permissive approach towards bulk buyers is dwindling in support.

State lotteries like Montana, Oregon, and Arizona have passed regulations banning bulk ticket purchases in one form or another, while states like Texas and Indiana have chosen to ban lottery couriers, although Indiana did also pass a law simultaneously banning bulk purchases. It is worth noting that there is no evidence of a lottery courier ever being involved in the recent $877,800 Idaho Cash jackpot win.

And now, Idaho is the latest state actively trying to ban bulk lottery ticket purchases with the introduction of House Bill 504 in the 2026 legislative session. With it having passed both the House and the Senate, Idaho lawmakers are targeting groups with enough purchasing power to "buy" lottery jackpots and rake in the profits.

House Bill 504 would place a $5,000 purchase limit on lottery tickets within a 24-hour period, whether in one transaction or multiple, at one location or several.

It applies to all individuals or groups "acting in concert," meaning, there is a clear attempt to coordinate purchases, pool funds, or act "on behalf of a common interest or strategy to exceed the bulk purchase transaction limit," the bill stipulates.

Including the language in the bill is important. Without it, groups like Black Swan could simply argue that that each individual stayed below the limit should more than one actor visit multiple locations to purchase tickets and exceed their collective $5,000 limit.

"The lottery is for everybody, not for corporations," Idaho Lottery Public Information Specialist David Workman relayed to Lottery Post. "We take security and integrity very seriously here. We want everyone to have a fair and equal chance at winning, and this is a way to ensure we can protect the fairness and integrity of the games."

The bill would give the Idaho Lottery "the right to investigate any ticket purchase patterns it deems suspicious or indicative of a bulk purchase transaction." The Lottery could rely on tools at its disposal to come to a final decision, including video surveillance footage, purchase records, transaction data, witness statements, and any other relevant evidence.

The Idaho Lottery would also be able to deny a prize payment if the associated winning ticket was determined to be purchased as part of a bulk purchase transaction that exceeded the limit. It's the solution that Lottery Post had proposed when the Texas Lottery was caught in the fire after a $95 million jackpot was "bought" by a purchasing group.

Lastly, the bill would punish retailers or employees who knowingly participate in or aid a bulk purchasing attempt, which could mean the suspension of a retailer's license to sell lottery products.

Legislature decided on a $5,000 daily spend limit for tickets after the Lottery spoke to its highest selling retailers and found that even the biggest spending players did not even spend close to $5,000 in one day. Therefore, Workman reasoned, the limit would not reasonably impact the average player. If anything, those big spenders are syndicates, so the bill potentially penalizing large office pools would realistically not be a concern.

For example, a winner named Joshua Hatfield, a farmer from Idaho Falls, recently won the second top prize in the "Bucks n' Trucks" scratch-off game: a fully loaded Ford F-150 Tremor and $10,000 in cash. At the time he decided to take a chance on the game, it was 99.45% sold out.

"I do my research on the scratch games, especially when games are close to selling out," Hatfield told the Lottery in January. "If there's a scratch game that looks like it's about to end, I'll stop at places along the way and buy a few at a time," said Hatfield. "I was looking for tickets on the game '$200,000 Cash Spectacular,' but I also knew that 'Bucks n' Trucks' was close to ending as well. When I saw them, I got a handful."

Hatfield employed the same strategy that Black Swan did — buying a large quantity of tickets for games that are near to ending but still have a top prize remaining — and had only spent a couple thousand dollars. It goes to show that the honest lottery player can still make a large purchase and be unaffected by the rules targeting bulk buyers, Workman illuminated.

"I have fun playing, trying to find the last tickets on a game, trying to help it get sold out and maybe win, too," Hatfield added.

What the bill accomplishes is that it "allows [the Lottery] the flexibility to look into each claim to make sure that fairness is in play for everyone," Workman explained to Lottery Post.

Just last week, Idaho Cash had a new jackpot winner. Janean Haber of Nampa visited the Lottery a few days after her $417,000 win from the Feb. 17 drawing to claim her prize, the game's second largest jackpot behind the $877,800 jackpot claimed by Mudspell Pizza, LLC.

"I am glad the Idaho Lottery is supporting the legislation to stop bulk purchasing by those players from out-of-state that were here last fall," Haber said to officials that day. "When they come in and play, average players like me have less of a chance to win. Idaho jackpots are for Idahoans! Let's keep it that way!"

House Bill 504, sponsored by Representative Joe Alfieri and Senator Jim Guthrie, passed the House by a vote of 62-6 and passed the Senate by a vote of 30-4. It is currently en route to be signed by Governor Brad Little. If signed, it would take effect July 1, 2026.