A Texas woman’s $83.5 million lottery winnings are in limbo after Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick launched an investigation into lottery courier services.
The woman purchased ten tickets with the Extra! option on February 17 through an app called Jackpocket. The app allows consumers to purchase tickets virtually, and then a courier service goes to a store and purchases the actual ticket. The courier service typically sends a scanned copy of the ticket to the customer and holds on to the original ticket until the winning numbers are drawn.
One of the woman’s ten tickets was a match for the jackpot in the drawing that same day, earning her the multi-million dollar prize.
Days later, the lieutenant governor began asking questions about regulations on courier services. He visited the store in Austin where the winning ticket was sold, called the Winner’s Corner, and discovered that the courier service operated out of the back of the same building, behind a wall. Draft Kings, a sports gambling company, owns both the Jackpocket app and the Winner’s Corner store.
Patrick raised concerns that affiliations such as these could pose a potentially serious conflict of interest and erode trust in the Texas Lottery system.
“Do you not see an issue where the public might lose confidence if the courier service somehow happened at this one location in the entire state of Texas sold an $83 million winning ticket, and they also own the location that printed the ticket?” Patrick asked the clerk at the Winner’s Corner, per a video he posted online.
Shortly after that, on February 24, the Texas Lottery announced that it was going to ban the use of lottery courier services, effective immediately. The change was made to align “with legislative efforts to address serious concerns raised by players and state leadership regarding the integrity, security, honesty and fairness of lottery operations,” according to a statement from the Texas Lottery.
Meanwhile, more than a month later, the winner of the February 17 jackpot has been unable to collect her $83.5 million.
“I literally spent $20. I didn’t spend $26 million to run every single possible combination of numbers. If you (the Lottery Commission) didn’t do an investigation into the (April 2023 jackpot win), that’s on you. That’s not my fault,” the woman told the Austin American-Statesman.
The April 2023 jackpot win that she referred to was another Texas Lottery drawing that stirred controversy. The $95 million winning ticket was one of 25 million tickets purchased by a European syndicate through a courier service. State Senator Paul Bettencourt commented on that sale, stating that there was a “99% chance of money laundering” involved. The 2023 ticket sale and the February 17, 2025 ticket sale through courier services are both under investigation.
On Tuesday, the woman who claims to have the winning ticket and her lawyer met with the Texas Lottery Commission, who told her that no winnings would be paid out to her until after the investigations are completed. Investigations are underway by the Texas Lottery Commission, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, and the Texas Rangers.
“She played by all the rules in play at the time,” the woman’s lawyer, Randy Howry, said of his client, per The Texas Tribune. “She should be paid her winnings, but she’s being caught up because the politicians are now involved.”
He pointed out that the 2023 winner was paid without a delay.
“If there was a concern that the couriers were not a safe way to play this game, why didn’t you stop it back then?” Howry said. Why did you make this decision two years later, when this person, who did play by the rules, won the lottery?”