2 Texas lottery quickly gains investigations and outraged the public outrage

The unusual circumstances related to two of the largest lottery jackpots in Texas History have triggered an angry debate about the unorthodox methods with which the prices result and have prompted the governor and attorney in general to announce investigations.

On April 22, 2023, someone won a 95 million US dollar Lotto Texas Jackpot by issuing 25 million US dollars to buy almost every possible combination of numbers in the draw. The winner, who was only identified as a business unit called Rook TX by Scotch Plains, NJ, claimed the flat -rate payment of $ 57,804,000 before taxes.

Then, on February 17th, someone won a Lotto Texas Jackpot of $ 83.5 million by ordering tickets online via Jackpocket, an app from Draftkings. Jackpocket also had the shop in Austin, which printed the winning ticket. It sold board games and had dozens of lottery terminals behind a wall behind a wall.

Can you buy millions of lottery combinations?

At the beginning of 2023, when the Jackpot went over for months without winners, someone found a way to almost guarantee a win, said Ryan Mindell, Managing Director of Texas Lottery Commission.

In the run-up to the drawing, the person or the person-it is not clear how many were involved in four retailers in Texas in order to order an “significant” number of lottery terminals, sufficient to pump out around 25 million tickets and cover almost every combination of numbers, said Mindell.

Then, in the three days before the drawing, people went to the shops and entered millions of number combinations using QR codes that were invited to iPads, said Mindell. With the Texas Lottery app, customers can generate QR codes who can be scanned in participating retailers to generate tickets.

The company led to a huge increase in sales with around 27 million tickets that were sold in less than 72 hours compared to about 2 million in a typical Lotto -Texas drawing, said Mindell.

“I remember that I woke up this Thursday morning and saw and thought the sales figures:” What happens to the hell? “, He said.

One of the tickets contained the winning combination 3-5-18-29-30-52 for the 95 million jackpot, the third largest in the history of Lotto Texas. Officials have not announced who was behind Rook TX, the company who claimed the award. The Texas law allows those who claim lottery prices of 1 million US dollars or more to remain anonymous.

The operation, which the Houston Chronicle has suspended through extensive investigative reporting, dismantled the outrage over a hearing in the Senate last month.

“This is probably the largest fraud that a group in Texas has ever committed,” said Senator Paul Bettencourt at the hearing. “We gave up for a fraudulent victory, probably 57.7 million US dollars.”

Mr. Mindell said that the lottery had taken steps to thwart similar “Bulk purchase” operations by restricting the number of terminals in a short time and ending the number of tickets that can print each terminal per drawing.

“In general, when a person had a lot of money and wanted to buy as many tickets as they wanted, it doesn’t violate the law,” he said. But he added: “The perception of the fairness of the game is significantly injured.”

A quiet shop with dozens of lottery terminals.

On February 17, a buyer won a jackpot of 83.5 million US dollars, also one of the largest in the history of Lotto Texas, using jackpocket. The buyer was a Texan customer who had ordered 10 entries for the draw and, according to Jackpocket, spent a total of 20 US dollars.

The app is one of a number of third -party companies who are known as Courier Services and enable customers to order online without physically entering a business.

Lt. published one day after the victory Governor Dan Patrick A video of his visit to the winner Corner in Austin, the business that had sold the winning ticket via Jackpocket.

He was not satisfied with what he saw: he noticed that the business, which also belonged to Jackpocket, kept a large number of lottery terminals in the back that was not open to the public. In addition to lottery cards, the shop mainly seemed to sell board games, he said.

“We do not suggest anything illegal, but this is not the way the lottery was designed for the company,” said Patrick in the video. “It was designed in such a way that someone worked in a shop, gave someone money and get a ticket back – not for machines behind walls and not from a courier service and a retailer who are all connected.”

The business, a licensed lottery retailer, has been the best-selling lottery retailer in Texas for years, said Mindell.

Officials in Texas say that both victories have shaken public trust in the lottery.

On February 24th, Gregnor Greg from Texas, state law enforcement officers, ordered both victories to examine both victories. “Texans must be able to trust the lottery system of our state and know that the lottery is carried out with integrity and lawful,” he said.

On the same day, the Texas Lottery announced that it is prohibited from a ban on Courier services such as Jackpocket and that the license of a lottery retailer who worked with one would revoke.

Two days later, Attorney General Ken Paxton announced his own investigation, which he described as “suspicious and potentially illegal lottery winnings”.

“The Texas citizens earn much better than bad actors who collect themselves from a lottery system that is open to exploitation, and we will be accountable for everyone who involves illegal activities,” he said.

Peter Sullivan, Senior Vice President Lottery at Draftkings, said in a explanation that Jackpocket would set the operations according to the Texas Lottery Policy. However, he noted that the app had been working in Texas since 2019 with “proven success record of compliance and commitment to responsible games” and had complied with the guidance of the Texas Lottery Commission.

He said that the company was hoping to work with political decision -makers in order to create rules that would enable the courier services to resume operations. Jackpocket, he said, drove a lottery card sale of over 550 million US dollars in Texas, which contributed to achieving important income for public education.