Texas Insider Report: AUSTIN, Texas – Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick issued this statement today following the unanimous passage of Senate Bill 28, Banning Lottery Couriers, by Sen. Bob Hall, R-Edgewood:
“Over the past weeks, scrutiny has correctly increased on the Texas Lottery Commission (TLC) and their inability to restore public confidence in their operations. In April of 2023, the biggest theft of citizens’ money happened when a foreign syndicate purchased 26 million $1 tickets in the Lotto Texas game. The winning prize had reached $95 million. Those tickets were all bought within 72 hours of the winning numbers being announced. The Lottery Commission not only inexplicably allowed this to happen but also provided extraordinary assistance in facilitating the printing of these tickets in several courier locations, one of which had little to no experience in printing tickets.
“The Governor and I have called for a Texas Rangers investigation of this event and the entire Lottery Commission, dating as far back as 2016, when the Commission, through its own rulemaking, changed the way the lottery operated by introducing couriers into the process of buying and printing tickets on behalf of people on a phone app.
“Sen. Hall, who has done a fantastic job carrying SB 28, passed SB 1820 out of the Senate last session 29-2 to ban lottery couriers in Texas. Unfortunately, that bill died in the Texas House. Today, Sen. Hall passed SB 28 to put an end to couriers once again; the bill passed the Senate 31-0.
“Two weeks ago, I visited a lottery courier location and was stunned to see how the operation worked. The location had two lottery terminals in a tiny retail space — not the usual convenience store, and they had 30-40 terminals behind the wall in a backroom that were spitting tickets out by the second. While I was eventually allowed to tour the backroom of the store, I was not allowed to take photos or videos or ask questions.
“For years, the Lottery Commission said they could not regulate lottery couriers even though the commission paved the way for them to creep into Texas. After my video highlighting this story was released (which can be found here), they changed their position. On Monday, the Lottery Commission announced they were ending all courier services in Texas.
“To be clear, the state does not pay the jackpot for winning tickets; it is paid for by the people who bought tickets believing they had a chance to win. The $95 million jackpot that appears to have been stolen came from honest Texans who bought lottery tickets over the time it took to build up that jackpot.
“The Texas Lottery cannot continue unless the people of Texas have faith that the game is not rigged in advance or that it is not being used as a criminal enterprise to launder massive amounts of money.
“Today, the Senate made it clear that the first step in restoring public trust in the commission, if even possible, is to ban lottery couriers. The decision on whether the lottery will continue will be made in the coming days and weeks of the legislative session.”
Senate Bill 28, by Sen. Bob Hall, bans lottery couriers from operating in Texas by prohibiting the sale or purchase of lottery tickets on the Internet.
