2 Texas Lottery Wins Prompt Investigations and Stir Public Outrage
The unusual circumstances surrounding two of the largest Lottery jackpots in Texas history have touched off a furious debate about the unorthodox methods used to snag the prizes and have led the governor and attorney general to announce investigations.On April 22, 2023, someone won a $95 million Lotto Texas jackpot by spending $25 million to buy nearly every possible number combination in the draw.The winner, identified only as a business entity called Rook TX, of Scotch Plains, N.J., ended up claiming the lump-sum payment of $57,804,000 before taxes.Then, on Feb.
17, someone won an $83.5 million Lotto Texas jackpot by ordering tickets online through Jackpocket, a third-party app owned by DraftKings.Jackpocket also owned the store in Austin that printed the winning ticket.
It sold board games in front and had dozens of lottery terminals behind a wall in the back.Can you buy millions of lottery combinations?In early 2023, as the jackpot in Lotto Texas ballooned over months without a winner, someone figured out a way to almost guarantee a win, according to Ryan Mindell, executive director of the Texas Lottery Commission.In the run-up to the drawing, the person or persons — it is not clear how many were involved — worked with four retailers in Texas to order a “significant” number of lottery terminals, enough to pump out roughly 25 million tickets and cover nearly every possible number combination, Mr.Mindell said.Then, in the three days leading up to the drawing, people went to the stores and entered millions of number combinations using QR codes that had been loaded onto iPads, Mr.
Mindell said.The Texas Lottery app allows customers to generate QR codes that can be scanned at participating retailers to generate tickets.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.
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