"Searching for a scapegoat": Lottery industry pioneer continues to face first-degree felony charge
By Kate Northrop
Former Texas Lottery Executive Director Gary Grief appeared in a Travis County courtroom on Friday, as state officials continue to hash out the results of a $95 million Lotto Texas jackpot purchasing event.
As the $95 million jackpot buyout continues to work its way through Texas state courts, in which a judge on Friday set the bond of the former Texas Lottery head at $10,000.
Grief voluntarily reported for booking following the hearing rather than wait for law enforcement to initiate the arrest, according to Texas Scorecard. Another pre-trial hearing has been set for Dec. 18.
His appearance marks the latest development in a case first surfaced in April of this year, when a Travis County grand jury indicted Grief on a first-degree felony charge of abuse of official capacity involving $300,000 or more. The original indictment was dismissed three days after it was filed, only to be reindicted a week later by a second grand jury on substantially the same charge. The now-defunct Texas Lottery Commission was also named in the reindictment, specifically commissioners Ed Rogers and Clay Kidd. Rogers passed away in 2024.
The charges stem from the April 22, 2023 Lotto Texas drawing, in which a New Jersey-based entity called Rook TX spent approximately $26 million to purchase nearly every single number combination to just about guarantee a win.
It stirred a controversy among state officials, who pondered whether the massive undertaking was an elaborate money laundering scheme, but those suspicions quietly faded without any concrete evidence.
Instead, lawmakers focused on making the central question whether Lottery officials improperly assisted the bulk-purchasing effort, despite the Texas Lottery operating within defined parameters at the time. More precisely, the Lottery responded to requests for additional terminals to print a greater volume of tickets at several licensed retailer locations.
It ultimately prompted an investigation by the Texas Rangers, which led to criminal charges against Grief.
In the reindictment filed at the end of April, the Travis County District Attorney's Offices accuses both Grief and the organization of intending to "harm and defraud" in their leadership capacity, "intentionally and knowingly misus[ing] government property, services and personnel" to do so.
Grief continues to deny any wrongdoing.
"The product of politics, not facts demonstrating a crime," Grief's attorney Sam Bassett has called the indictment.
Bassett previously told The New York Times that his client has been "nothing but transparent and cooperative" with the Texas Rangers throughout their investigation of the 2023 drawing, and that the case was the result of politicians "searching for a scapegoat."
"When all facts are revealed in court, the public will see that Gary's leadership at the Lottery Commission generated millions of dollars for Texas schools and veterans and there was no crime," Bassett said in a statement to the paper.
Grief's next pre-trial hearing is scheduled for Dec. 18 in Travis County.
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Did they win with all those tickets? $26 million in tickets is a big bet to risk.
Yes, they did win. So basically they bought the jackpot.
Unless he profited directly from this scheme which doesn't sound like he did I can't say how he committed a crime. I don't think he's going to get convicted of anything than other maybe incompetence. If that.
Even if he didn't profit directly, he undermined the integrity of the game as well as the trust of the public. Who wants to play the lottery knowing a private equity entity might be lurking in the shadows up to some nefarious business??
And on top of that the commission itself is colluding with them?!? SERIOUSLY???
* I couldn't disagree with you more. Why? Cause Texas had no problem with their lottery game growing to $95 million but no sooner does an outside outfit win their own State Jackpot that the finger pointing began.
* Texas is weird, not saying my State isn't but Texas is also hoping to get their own former impeached Attorney General to represent them in Washington. It must be the water.
Exactly!! I'm with you on this. I foresee this busting open a bigger systemic problem going all the way back to The Multi State Lottery Association and what happened on November 7th, 2022. Especially since Mr. Grief was the President of The Multi State Lottery Association around 2016, and Eddie Tipton (MUSL Employee convicted of insider fraud) was the brother of the Texas justice of the peace who won a lottery prize rigged by Tipton. This thing is SYSTEMIC!! Gary Grief is not a lone shark in the waters. He's apart of a whole school of sharks in our opinion.
The entire ship is about to sank..
How could you possibly think its ok for someone who works for the lottery to provide a group of
people with ipads and extra terminals loaded with software that prints 100 tickets per second until all the
combinations are bought up to guarantee a win? How? That is clearly criminal activity because it takes away the "Everyone has the same chance of winning" from the game and it absolutely guarantees a jackpot win to the organized group. Which, essentially hijacks the prize from the people of the state of Texas. Additionally, if a regular player doesn't have the opportunity to have the the head of the Texas lottery to assist with ipads and extra terminals printing tickets, why does the organized group have it? Lock'em all up!!
And no mention of a criminal RICO charge. Told you all.
And this matter has no connection to Tipton.
Facts are facts. It is misuse of government property as the indictment stated. There is zero evidence of a criminal conspiracy.
I agree.
Misuse of government property. No evidence of a criminal conspiracy.
Texas needs to get over it. They had no bar to 3rd party vendors buying large groups of tickets at that time and they delayed paying the winner. They are making a fool of the state.
You are so desperate for details and you are just acting like you don't see what's right in front of the entire world's face. The situation is not completely about Mr.Grief, He's just the warm up exercise. You have very childlike wishful thinking and seem to suffer from super optimism. The entire Texas Lottery commission got indicted even the dead guy. This is about to be epic due to it being systemic. The Multi State Lottery Association is about to get what they've been hungry for and it's not an increase in revenue.
The situation was so drastic that Texas rangers had to call in the FBI in Washington due to the massive amount of deception and fraud involved. This is bigger than Texas!! This is a nationwide RICO operation.
Texas dismantled the entire Texas Lottery commission for a reason.........It's more to come
This green guy is nuts.
Super optimism.......Wake up!!