HOUSTON – While placing bets on smartphones has become commonplace, those who use third-party apps to play the lotto may want to wait til they can purchase their tickets at a store, at least in the state of Texas.
Attorney Randy Howry and the Howry Breen & Herman law firm announced that they are representing a Texas woman who won an $83.5 million jackpot back in February but was told by the Texas Lottery Commission that she may never see a cent of her winnings.
According to the law firm, the woman used Jackpocket, a smartphone app that allows people to buy lottery tickets and scratchers through a courier service, to purchase $20 worth of Texas Lotto tickets.
“To her amazement, she won the $83.5 million jackpot based on the numbers chosen on one of those few tickets,” the announcement states. “To her frustration, TLC told her soon after she presented the winning ticket that it couldn’t pay out the winnings because Governor Greg Abbott told the Texas Rangers to investigate her win on suspicion of fraud.”
Courier services used to buy lottery tickets are currently under fire from Texas legislators who want to ban and criminalize such services.
According to the firm, the legal changes began after a single group of buyers used an app similar to Jackpocket to purchase more than $25 million worth of Texas Lotto tickets in 2023, which essentially guaranteed that it would win the $95 million jackpot. Some lawmakers have pointed at the incident as a new and technology-driven form of money laundering.
“However, as attorney Howry and our client have pointed out, there is a quantifiable and massive difference between a group buying $25 million worth of lottery tickets compared to one woman buying $20 worth,” the announcement states.
“Implying that she had attempted some form of money laundering or fraud with such a small purchase sounds absurd. Indeed, it takes away from the importance of the principle foundation of winning the lottery: luck. She got lucky by purchasing only a few lottery tickets but winning big.”
The courier service used to purchase the lottery tickets has not been completely outlawed by pending legislation, the law firm points out.
Last month, Howry was featured on NBC News, where he said TLC has allowed the apps to be used for the past six years and has paid out hundreds of millions of dollars
“We’re being told that once (the) investigations are complete, we’ll (TLC) let you know if we’re going to pay you,” Howry said. “This is the first time, we’ve been told, that they ever refused to pay a lottery ticket that’s been purchased on the app.”
The firm announced the suit on Wednesday.
