Texas Lottery win raises concerns from Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick: 'Doesn't look right'
TX lottery win raises concerns from state leader
Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick says he is concerned about fairness and transparency after an $83.5 million-winning ticket was sold to a courier service that also owns the store where the ticket was bought.
AUSTIN - Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick is raising concerns about the Texas Lottery system after a recent winning ticket was purchased in Austin.
Patrick says he is concerned about fairness and transparency after an $83.5 million-winning ticket was sold to a courier service that also owns the store where the ticket was bought.
Winning lotto ticket raises eyebrows
What Happened:
A winning $83.5M Texas Lottery ticket was bought at a retail store in North Austin called Winners Corner TX LLC. On Tuesday, Patrick visited the store and posted video of his visit.
His video shows a couple of terminals to buy lottery tickets and merchandise tables with board games for sale.
Patrick said behind the public part of the store he saw dozens more ticket terminals printing lottery tickets.
The winning ticket was purchased through an app called JackPocket, which also owns Winners Corner.
Patrick's video shows a sales tax license for both Winners Corner and JackPocket, whose parent company is DraftKings.
The courier service says that the winner was a Texas resident who has been living in the state for over 40 years and purchased 10 tickets.
What are lottery couriers?
Couriers buy tickets on behalf of lottery players, often through phone apps.
In the case of Monday's winning ticket, it was purchased through the app, Jackpocket.
When you buy a lottery ticket virtually the couriers purchase your Texas ticket.
By the numbers:
The Texas Lottery says in 2023, $173 million in winnings were through couriers.
That's 9 percent of all lottery winnings that year.
What is the problem?
Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick acknowledges that courier services are not illegal in Texas, but he says that is not what the law intended when the state's lottery began in 1991.
DraftKings argues they aren't breaking any laws and that this win was not as a result of a bulk ordering system, where millions of dollars are spent to buy nearly all possible number combinations.
Lt. Gov. Patrick, DraftKings on lotto concerns: RAW
Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick says he is concerned about fairness and transparency after an $83.5 million-winning ticket was sold to a courier service that also owns the store where the ticket was bought.
What they're saying:
"If you went to Stop and Go, and they weren't selling anything but games, and they had a couple of terminals out front, but behind the wall, they had 20, 30, 40 machines putting out tickets from a courier service and they happened to win the ticket. I think people would say doesn't look right," Patrick argued. "Either the lottery is going to have to answer a lot of questions, and make a lot of changes, or they're going to be out of business. But the couriers are going to be gone one way or the other. They have to go. That's not the way the system was set up."
The other side:
"What we do is allowed. People within the state, which have been verified within the state of Texas order official state lottery tickets," said Peter Sullivan, the SVP of Lottery at DraftKings. "I think there is a misconception that JackPocket as a courier is buying all these tickets to try to win itself. No, we are buying them on behalf of customers that have been age and geo-verified and are playing the games on an individual basis, not a bulk purchase basis."
DraftKings says that they support banning bulk purchasing of tickets and say that they believe it disrupts the integrity of the lottery.
Legislation to ban lottery couriers
What's next:
Lt. Gov. Patrick supported legislation to ban couriers in the last session that failed to pass the House.
He is renewing his push for restrictions in this session as the Lottery Commission is up for renewal by the legislature.
Several bills have been filed in this session to amend the current lottery rules.
The Source: Information in this article comes from a social media post by Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick as well as FOX 4's interviews with Patrick and DraftKings SVP of Lottery Peter Sullivan.