Texas Lottery

Reply #33

Justing618 — Thu, 27 Feb 2025 04:07:31 GMT

Thanks for the info

Reply #32

JustMaybe — Wed, 26 Feb 2025 18:35:38 GMT

The usual argument that it preys on poor people and disadvantaged people ( which I don't subscribe to)

Self control is a hard thing, that is why people struggle with addiction.

Some people (I won't classify them as poor) don't look at the lottery as a form of entertainment, they see it as a one way ticket out of their financial misery and the odds of winning do not register in their minds.

Alcohol, smoking, drugs etc all prey on people, some suffer more than others.

It's hard to... [ More ]

Reply #31

rcbbuckeye — Wed, 26 Feb 2025 17:57:51 GMT

This thing is far from over. There are legislators that have wanted and still want to abolish the lottery altogether. The usual argument that it preys on poor people and disadvantaged people ( which I don't subscribe to). They also want to investigate the lottery back as far as 2015-2016.

This could have been avoided years ago if Gary Grief had wanted to, but I think he saw it as a means to sell more tickets.

Reply #30

rcbbuckeye — Wed, 26 Feb 2025 13:32:45 GMT

Not in TX, at least using Jackpocket, or any other courier.

Reply #29

Justing618 — Wed, 26 Feb 2025 05:58:00 GMT

I'm curious. Could out of state players purchase tickets this way? I understand a firm bought the winning numbers. But Could a Joe Smoe like me buy a couple dollars worth. From the confront of my home

Reply #28

JustMaybe — Wed, 26 Feb 2025 01:12:02 GMT

The odds are always against the player.

Can you imagine now the odds being against you due to unfair play

Reply #27

Booyah B — Tue, 25 Feb 2025 03:54:14 GMT

Got this msg tonight. Everybody running for the hills! I had already closed my account with them a while ago.

Reply #26

garyo1954 — Tue, 25 Feb 2025 03:01:37 GMT

I agree with you on playing the multi state games.

Truth is they are safer from this type play. It would cost them two to four times what they could expect to win. So it would be a minimum of $604 million to buy Powerball. Not many people or investment firms have that kind of cash to throw way

And that is if they could amass the total number of terminals it would take to print that many tickets between Wednesday and Saturday.

It's not over in Texas just yet. The governor has direct... [ More ]

Reply #25

JustMaybe — Mon, 24 Feb 2025 22:26:22 GMT

It has been shown that nothing is impossible.

However, I think, and I could be wrong, that it's better to play MM and PB and other multi state games like Lucky for Life.

Reply #24

rcbbuckeye — Mon, 24 Feb 2025 21:10:03 GMT

Yeah, sending Gary to Georgia is a great idea! I'm with you on the stack of tix. Good news for me is this last jackpot run I scaled back my Lotto play.

I've been thinking so much about this the last couple days, I pulled a brain fart today. I went up to the store to buy 2 Step tix for tonight. I walk in and tell the clerk give me 3 Lotto tix .

So much for laying off Lotto....

Reply #23

garyo1954 — Mon, 24 Feb 2025 20:42:17 GMT

Glad to see the ban on courier services. Now go take back all the extra machines and shut 'em down! Let them move back to California (or Delaware).

I really want to believe those guys had the best interest of the lottery players at heart. I want to believe the were hoping to make Texas the largest lottery in the states. In part I'm sure it's true, but they were either naive or plain foolish to go about it the way they did

The burr under my saddle is looking at this stack of Texas lotter... [ More ]

Reply #22

rcbbuckeye — Mon, 24 Feb 2025 17:31:01 GMT

I think the whole purpose Grief (and Mindell) was attempting is to simply sell more tickets, and couriers certainly did that. But, it really did and does put the average and casual player at a major disadvantage.

Reply #21

rcbbuckeye — Mon, 24 Feb 2025 17:26:50 GMT

TX Lottery website has a notice that courier services are being prohibited. Proposed rule amendments are published. Rules will be proposed to the board on March 4.

That didn't take long.

Reply #20

garyo1954 — Mon, 24 Feb 2025 16:21:31 GMT

At this point everyone is focused on the alleged cheating, alleged scam, and the contribution to these events.

At some point the questions have to center around why these occurred at all.

It's now unusual for communities, counties, or states to attract new business. When they do it's about bringing more money and more jobs into the state.

In this instance Gary Grief went to California to woo a lottery website to move to Texas.

It wasn't about more jobs since the jobs would be min... [ More ]

Reply #19

garyo1954 — Mon, 24 Feb 2025 15:51:47 GMT

Taking the profit out exactly what has to happen. But you're dealing with people who were willing to buy 25 million tickets to assure a win.

A roll down game would allow them to buy all the 5 number combinations, spending much less and still end up buying a lottery win.

Capping the payout punishes everybody for the abuse by people who could care less at this point. They won. They proved they can win any time they chose.

They have the money and the necessary equipment to do it.... [ More ]

Reply #18

Stat$talker — Mon, 24 Feb 2025 12:13:20 GMT

Reply #17

Murgatroyd — Mon, 24 Feb 2025 05:27:35 GMT

My solution would be to have a guaranteed payout when it reaches a level just below where the buy-all-the-tickets strategy becomes profitable. The way this would work is that if there's no jackpot winner on that drawing, the pot is split between the second prize winners, or if there are none of those, the third prize winners, etc.

Reply #16

Justing618 — Mon, 24 Feb 2025 02:28:39 GMT

Seems super suspicious to say the least......

Reply #15

Justing618 — Mon, 24 Feb 2025 02:27:23 GMT

I hope they figure it out. And I hope you get a pay day!!!!!!!! ......

Reply #14

Justing618 — Mon, 24 Feb 2025 02:22:54 GMT

Interesting to say the least. I really don't know much about it before I read what you wrote. My thoughts before hand.......I was thinking they set up a store front. Packed it full of lottery machines. Then just started printing tickets day and night. I also heard a something about where they do something to drive up jackpots. I dunno though. And I seriously think there's probably some kinda wording in the game rules. Where they cannot be held liable if they cheated. Sorta like casino's have. Ma... [ More ]

Reply #13

garyo1954 — Sun, 23 Feb 2025 18:17:42 GMT

The state tried to rectify the problem several years age as Rcbuckeye mentioned.

They instituted two policies

1. Tickets were to be purchased at a physical terminal within state boundaries

2. That to qualify to be a licensed retailer a person, business or entity must sell other products and not sell lottery as a sole business. That meant things like liquor, tobacco, groceries, gas, etc.

Once this took effect, former director Gary Grief took a trip to California to woo a certain... [ More ]

Reply #12

Stat$talker — Sun, 23 Feb 2025 06:36:43 GMT

I'm glad this is being looked at cause I know I've been cheated out of a jackpot many times . I want my money TX!!!!

Huuummm!!, Naah WHYY duzz that Statement sound sooo familiar

Reply #11

Justing618 — Sun, 23 Feb 2025 05:23:31 GMT

Waiting for all those it's fair it's not rigged comments to pop up! J/k . But for real. All they gotta do is limit terminals. Unless there filling out play slips. I dunno the specifics of this. But from what I gathered it's an investment firm buying all the tickets. And they also supposedly have a way to drive up jackpots. I dunno though. Hopefully it's not a computer draw game.

Reply #10

Coin Toss — Sun, 23 Feb 2025 03:55:38 GMT

Now the spotlight is really on the Texas lottery!

Austin store that sold $83.5M winning lottery ticket under investigation by Dan Patrick

https://www.yahoo.com/news/austin-store-sold-83-5m-035817429.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall

Reply #9

Booyah B — Sun, 23 Feb 2025 02:39:11 GMT

Yeah that same store just sold a $1M $50 scratch ticket in Jan of this yr. You got places in TX that haven't sold a jackpot ticket in more than 5 yrs and you got this store that had two in less than 2 mths. I'm glad this is being looked at cause I know I've been cheated out of a jackpot many times . I want my money TX

Reply #8

garyo1954 — Sat, 22 Feb 2025 01:28:35 GMT

I really don't want to see it max, maybe just max it at 25% cash value for online, third party and app sales? Everybody should't be punished for a few people who can't follow or enforce the rules

The Texas Scorecard news site has done several articles on it. The latest is one is about the lawsuit filed by Dawn Nettles and a class of players against IGT, the former lottery director, and a lottery site for fraud. No, the lottery site is not Lottery Post

Apparently the lottery site placed... [ More ]

Reply #7

JustMaybe — Sat, 22 Feb 2025 00:46:34 GMT

I think there is a lottery, either in the UK or Canada that maxes out at 70M. When it gets to 70 it does not continue to roll and some one has to win it somehow. Don't recall the details and I don't want to Google either lol.

Reply #6

rcbbuckeye — Fri, 21 Feb 2025 20:38:23 GMT

I just read an article that claims Gary Grief and Ryan Mindell were aware and ok with courier ticket sales even though it was and is against the law.

Reply #5

garyo1954 — Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:58 GMT

Another option that they aren't talking about is calling the payout which would hurt all players. And I don't think anyone wants that.

But if they capped the payout at 25million it would remove the temptation of buying a win while maintaining the monies that go to student and veteran services.

Doesn't seem like an easy solution.

Reply #4

rcbbuckeye — Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:39:55 GMT

Shut down sales to couriers, and/or limit terminals.

Texas legislature came close to shutting down the lottery several years ago. There might be a another shot at it again. The only thing that stopped it last time was they realized they would have to replace money going to the schools, which was considerable. Can't recall the amount, thinking it was $5 million

Reply #3

garyo1954 — Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:32:25 GMT

To me it's a serious problem. Like playing poker with a guy who can buy the four aces anytime he chooses.

They thought they solved a loophole by requiring tickets to be sold in Texas. What they didn't expect was the third party services to set up shop in the state.

I imagine one of the things they will look at is limiting the number of terminals a location can acquire.

With Texas being a major contributor to MM and PB talking about the end of the Texas lottery will affect the nationa... [ More ]

Reply #2

JustMaybe — Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:46:28 GMT

When you have allegations of a courier buying tickets for groups in Malta (a tax haven for the rich) for a State Lottery game, then that is really unfair for the local player.

These are very serious allegations.

However, like in most things, the system always works for the rich.

Will buy my one MM and one PB ticket for the weekend and see if I get lucky.

Reply #1

garyo1954 — Fri, 21 Feb 2025 16:19:18 GMT

Definitely a mess in Austin. Words like money laundering and allegations of illegal purchases (underage persons buying tickets) make it sound like a devious plot to game the state.

When the Lt Governor is making public statements that these apps have to go or we'll drop the lottery it has made some waves.

Part of the attention comes from it happening in Austin, right under state government noses.

Lt Governor Dan Patrick says the shop that sold the ticket sells 4 times the number of... [ More ]

Texas Lottery

JustMaybe — Fri, 21 Feb 2025 04:40:57 GMT

The spotlight is on the Texas Lottery.

The recent jackpot wins are ruffling feathers in high places.

I got my popcorns and following the news closely.