Indiana Lawmakers Pass Bill Prohibiting Lottery Couriers — With A Caveat

Lottery couriers are officially barred from operating in Indiana, at least for the time being.

With passage in the House on Tuesday, a bill prohibiting couriers in Indiana has now passed both houses in the Legislature and is on its way to Gov. Mike Braun’s desk for his signature. It passed the House by a 82-10 vote.

The bill, Senate Bill 94, says the Indiana State Lottery Commission cannot operate or authorize the operation of any lottery couriers. If anyone attempts to operate a courier in the state, they’ll be charged with a class A misdemeanor.

The new lottery courier restriction, and all other components of SB94, go into effect July 1.

Currently, there are no reputable lottery courier apps — such as Jackpocket and Jackpot.com — operating in Indiana.

This bill isn’t about courier legality

However, it’s important to note that Indiana isn’t stating either way whether lottery couriers are illegal right now.

This bill, simply put, is just kicking the topic of couriers down the road so they can be properly vetted at the same time the legislature discusses the potential legalization of iLottery again — to “put them both on a level playing field for the time being,” Rep. Ethan Manning, co-sponsor of the bill and chair of the House Public Policy Committee, said during SB94’s hearing before that committee April 1.

A bill that would have legalized online casinos and an online lottery in Indiana — House Bill 1432 — stalled and never made it out of committee in mid-February. Perhaps there will be another similar bill in the next legislative session in 2026.

“At this time, the thought is to prohibit them,” Manning said, “similar to what we did with iLottery a few years ago, until the legislature can have that full conversation around lottery moving forward.”

In fact, HB1432 would not have banned lottery couriers.

Quite the opposite.

It stipulated that, while also offering an online lottery platform of its own, the State Lottery Commission could also “authorize and regulate courier services, including for the delivery of draw games and eInstant games over the Internet.”

So, again, the passage of SB94 doesn’t necessarily mean Indiana is opposed to lottery couriers. (Although HB1432 came and went before Texas stirred up courier drama with its ban in late February.)

Instead, legislators are just buying time. SB94 makes it so the lottery commission cannot allow a courier until the legislature passes a bill expressly authorizing it to do so.

“Because the concern is, without iLottery, lottery couriers still allow you to purchase lottery tickets over the internet,” Manning said. “Now, they do buy a physical ticket at the end of that, but at the end of the day, from a consumer perspective, it’s not all that different. You’re buying lottery tickets online via an app or a website. And so I think those two things probably need to go together — that overall discussion, iLottery and lottery courier.”

Texas and Indiana … a classic pair?

Indiana is the second state to take official legal or legislative action on lottery couriers in 2025.

Texas briefly stole gambling industry headlines in late February when the Texas Lottery Commission announced it was banning lottery couriers, effective immediately. Not only that, but the TLC would revoke the license of any retailer working with a courier.

“The proliferation of couriers in the state has raised serious concerns that the integrity, security, honesty, and fairness of lottery games is being undermined by the continued activity of courier services,” the TLC said in a statement. “ … The TLC believes couriers are not legal under Texas law and the TLC will exercise its discretion under the SLA to take all appropriate action to stop this activity from occurring.”

Other states — including Connecticut and South Carolina — are also considering bills that would prohibit lottery couriers, and New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez released an opinion in March questioning the legality of couriers. Soon after, Jackpocket — the courier market leader — exited New Mexico.

Regulation for ‘bulk purchase of lottery products’

One component of HB1432 made its way into SB94, and that’s the language concerning the lottery commission’s ability to “adopt rules concerning the bulk purchase of lottery products.”

Per Manning, this section of the bill was written to prevent something that occurred in Texas.

In April 2023, a group called Rock TX bought $25 million of Lotto Texas tickets and won $95 million. It was perfectly legal, but also obvious what they were trying to do: They purchased 99% of the total possible number combinations to just about guarantee themselves the jackpot.

“(Texas) had to pay that out because it was a legitimate purchase,” Manning said. “So this will allow (the Indiana lottery) to regulate bulk purchase of their products to avoid problems like that.”

The bill doesn’t specify what the bulk purchase regulation would look like — just that the lottery commission has the authority to create rules for those types of purchases.