Arizona To Become Third State To Regulate Lottery Couriers

In an interview with Lottery Geeks two weeks ago, Thomas Metzger, the CEO of lottery courier service Lotto.com, revealed that two states would soon be taking the formal step of regulating couriers, but he couldn’t name those states on the record.

Now we know what one of the two was.

At the latest public meeting of the Arizona Lottery, the state’s lottery commission heard a motion to regulate courier services, and the motion carried. Arizona will join New York and New Jersey as the only states in which companies such as Lotto.com, Jackpot.com, and Jackpocket will be able to take online orders for lottery tickets as regulated entities.

This development in Arizona comes, not coincidentally, amid efforts to ban courier services in Indiana and in Texas, the latter part of the fallout of an $83.5 million jackpot win that got the attention of the state’s lieutenant governor, Dan Patrick.

The Texas situation in particular has awoken regulators in other states to the potential for a courier ban coming to their jurisdiction and the value of regulation as an alternative.

Motions to authorize

In the minutes of the Arizona Lottery Commission’s April 10 meeting, it is explained that Chair Jeff Weintraub “entertained a motion to authorize the Arizona Lottery to amend its rules to prohibit retailers from selling lottery tickets to lottery courier services without the Arizona Lottery’s approval. Commissioner [Shannon] Scheel moved to do so; Commissioner [Tereza] Fritz seconded. The vote was unanimous, with all Commission Members present voting aye. The motion carried.”

Additionally, “Chair Weintraub entertained a motion to authorize the Arizona Lottery to allow the Arizona Lottery to operate lottery courier services. Commissioner Scheel moved to do so; Commissioner Fritz seconded. There was no discussion and no questions were raised. The vote was unanimous, with all Commission Members present voting aye. The motion carried.”

As noted by Vixio Regulatory Intelligence U.S. Editor Chris Sieroty in a LinkedIn post, Arizona Lottery Executive Director Alec Thomson said during the brief meeting, “This is kind of a way for us to both authorize the retailer that is working with the courier and authorize the courier that is working with the retailer.”

Thomson emphasized a point Texas’ Patrick would apparently disagree with as he focused on the positive contributions of couriers in the lottery ecosystem: “We have a number of couriers operating in the state of Arizona, and … it’s growing [so] fast that they’ve contributed to the growth of lottery sales in many cases.”

Lottery couriers take ticket orders from customers, and for a fee, purchase physical tickets for those customers at retail outlets, then provide digital access to the ticket. Winnings are deposited into the customer’s account with the courier.

In the Texas Lotto win from February that created the current firestorm, the winning ticket was ordered through the Jackpocket app and purchased at a retail outlet owned by Jackpocket. Patrick objected to the optics of the company that owns the store selling the ticket also technically purchasing the ticket, and the anonymous winner has thus far been denied her $83.5 million prize.