Texas Lottery Commission holding out on paying $83.5M to winner over technicality

A Texan woman who recently scooped the $83.5 million jackpot on the lottery may never receive her winnings, officials have warned.

The Austin resident, who remains anonymous, spent $20 on Texas lotto tickets for the February 17 draw using the app Jackpocket. Jackpocket is a third-party vendor—known as an online lottery courier—that allows customers to buy tickets and scratch-offs remotely for a fee.

Seven days after her victory, lottery officials in Texas announced that they were moving forward with an investigation into two separate major wins due to money laundering concerns. Despite this development coming after her win, lottery officials are still withholding payment. An estimated two million Texans use lottery courier services.

The woman made the trip to the lottery’s headquarters in Austin last Tuesday, hoping to collect her winnings, but she was sent away empty-handed.

“I've gone through frustration and being sad and stressed, and now I'm just angry,” she recently told the Austin America-Statesman in the presence of her lawyer, Randy Howry. “I literally spent $20. I didn't spend $26 million to run every single possible combination of numbers.”

The Texas Lottery Commission’s Executive Director Ryan Mindell was sharply criticized during a Texas Senate Finance Committee hearing on February 12 after a group used lottery couriers to bulk purchase more than $25 million in tickets to buy 99 percent of the possible combination of numbers, clinching a $95 million jackpot in April 2023.