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Governor Greg Abbott of Texas has kicked off an investigation into two recent state lottery wins after controversy arises. The controversy lies behind the connection between the lottery and online ticketing firms, something fairly new in the lottery game. The Texas Rangers have launched their investigation at the request of Abbott. The investigation will focus on two wins in which the winners had virtual tickets. One win happened in February of this year, with a jackpot of $83.5 million and the other is a win from 2023, with a jackpot of $95 million. The win from 2023 was won by a group of investors which raised flags of confusion at the time as well.

Due to the virtual tickets, Texans confidence in the lottery has decreased.

State lawmakers have been cracking down on the Texas Lottery Commission, claiming they are unable to regulate lottery couriers. Abbott has finally decided to open up this investigation into the wins to clear up once and for all if the virtual tickets are valid. In a recent press release, Abbott said he feels that “Texans must be able to trust in our state’s lottery system and know that the lottery is conducted with integrity and lawfully.”

The virtual tickets are bought through lottery courier services.

Back in 2016, the state lottery commission made the decision to not regulate lottery courier services, as they felt they did not have the authority to do so. The services were third-party services that allowed people to purchase tickets remotely. Now, due to the controversial wins and amidst the investigation opened by Abbott, the Texas Lottery Commission has decided to move forward with starting the process to ban these services and penalizing stores that sell to courier services.

Typically, courier services buy the tickets in person for online buyers. More often than not, couriers own the stores they purchase tickets from. This practice has led people to worry about the legality of the purchasing, since there is no way to verify the legality of the buyers. Since the commission ruled that they cannot control the couriers, people have argued that the practice opens the door for money laundering schemes to be the buyers of winning lottery tickets.

Despite the decision from 2016, couriers have only been operating since 2019.

The three year gap is due to the fact that in 2016, the couriers were merely an idea. It took around three years for them to develop their plans and begin operations. The controversy around the services increased tenfold when one entity purchased 25 million lottery tickets in just 72 hours in 2023. This was the investment group that won $95 million. Even with the volume of tickets purchased, they doubled their money with the win. Since this incident, even people who did not have courier services on their radar have been skeptical of the services.

According to a report from 2023, 19 states have courier services.

Of the 19 states with courier services, only three have regulations in place. These three states are New York, New Jersey, and Arkansas. The regulations in these states mainly consist of licensing requirements for couriers, something Texas lacks. Based on the outcome of the investigation, it is expected that the services will either be entirely banned or become regulated.