• Lottery Results
      • Arkansas
      • Arizona
      • California
      • Colorado
      • Connecticut
      • Delaware
      • Florida
      • Georgia
      • Idaho
      • Illinois
      • Indiana
      • Iowa
      • Kansas
      • Kentucky
      • Louisiana
      • Maine
      • Maryland
      • Massachusetts
      • Michigan
      • Minnesota
      • Mississippi
      • Missouri
      • Montana
      • Nebraska
      • New Hampshire
      • New Jersey
      • New Mexico
      • New York
      • North Carolina
      • North Dakota
      • Oklahoma
      • Ohio
      • Oregon
      • Pennsylvania
      • Rhode Island
      • South Carolina
      • South Dakota
      • Texas
      • Tennessee
      • Vermont
      • Virginia
      • Washington
      • Wisconsin
      • Wyoming
    • News

      News

      New Texas Lottery Regulator Increasing Budget, Staff To Handle Added Responsibilities

      Transition underway to get Department of Licensing and Regulation mostly up to speed by Sept. 1

      By Eric Raskin

      Last updated: July 9, 2025

      2 min

      texas flag cowgirl

      The Texas Lottery Commission (TLC) is no more, but lottery play in Texas continues on with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) now overseeing it.

      That means a greatly expanded budget and a larger staff for the TDLR to handle its massive influx of new work.

      Tuesday, at the first public meeting of the Texas Commission of Licensing and Regulation (the seven-member governing board and policy-making body for the TDLR), commission members addressed the necessary changes.

      During a three-hour-plus session that mostly focused on duties unrelated to the lottery, Glenn Neal, the TDLR’s recently hired lottery transition director, outlined that the TDLR would need to increase its staff by 50% and that its expected operating budget for the two-year period beginning Sept. 1 would expand by a factor of nearly 6x in order to handle lottery oversight.

      “I thought I’d start with a little sense of scale as far as the transition goes,” Neal said in his opening remarks. “If TDLR were to stand alone as an agency for the ’26-’27 biennium, it would be a $140 million agency with 615 FTEs [full-time employees]. With the transfer of … lottery commission to TDLR, we’ll be an $800 million agency with 938 FTEs.”

      The lottery produces about $10 billion annually for the Texas state treasury.

      Some background, one big pay bump

      The oversight change in Texas stems from a pair of controversial Lotto Texas wins, one in 2023 and one in February, which ultimately led to Gov. Greg Abbott signing into law state Sen. Bob Hall’s bill to abolish the TLC.

      An investigation into the more recent win remains in progress five months later, and the woman who holds that $83.5 million jackpot winning ticket, Kristen Moriarty, still has not been paid. She filed a lawsuit in May against the TLC.

      The 2023 jackpot, worth $95 million and claimed by a group called Rook TX that reportedly purchased every possible number combination because it was a positive-expected-value play at that jackpot amount, is generally perceived as the greater controversy because the TLC allegedly helped facilitate the scheme.

      The two investigations combined to inspire SB 3070, which disbanded the TLC but kept lottery play (and the money it produces) flowing through new TDLR oversight.

      Courtney Arbour and Glenn Neal (at white desk, facing commissioners) speak at Tuesday’s meeting

      Early in Tuesday’s meeting, commissioners voted to increase TDLR Executive Director Courtney Arbour’s annual salary by 23.6%, from $190,000 to $235,000, to reflect her added workload and responsibility with the lottery now under her purview. That change will go into effect Sept. 1.

      Arbour and Neal updated commissioners on the state of the transition, saying most of the changeover will be completed by the same date.

      In the wake of the two jackpot investigations, lottery courier companies, which take online orders and then physically purchase tickets on customers’ behalf, are no longer permitted to operate in Texas. On Tuesday, Arbour referred to courier operations as “flawed practices” and emphasized that one of the TDLR’s new duties is to ensure third-party lottery sales are not happening in the state.

      Get Weekly Email Updates

      "*" indicates required fields

      News, features, and original reporting on industry happenings, lottery results, rules and regulations, and more.

      Related Posts

      Lottery Ticket Being Scratched Off

      The Most Beloved Instant Lottery Games

      golden retriever

      Lottery Winner’s $50K Windfall Unleashes Dog Trust Fund Drama, Ends Relationship

      online game library

      Evoplay Says It Will Expand Its iLottery Game Library ‘In The Coming Months’

      Lotto Matrix June 20

      The Lotto Matrix: Virginia Adds New iLottery Games, Player Having Bad Day Wins Big

      Recommended Read

      judge

      News

      Texas Judge Orders Lottery Commission To Freeze Woman’s Jackpot Win

      There’s More…

      Lotto Matrix June 6

      News

      The Lotto Matrix: Texas Lottery Tumult Continues

      May 23, 2025

      Chris Altruda

      Lotto Matrix June 20

      News

      The Lotto Matrix: An “Italian Job” Up For Grabs And More Texas Twists

      March 21, 2025

      Chris Altruda

      lottery matrix

      News

      The Lotto Matrix: Alabama Gambling Bill In Limbo, Inspired Hitting Its Quota, More

      Welcome to our weekly Friday compilation of the lottery industry's most significant, interesting, or absurd happenings.

      March 22, 2024

      Christian Holmes

      Lotto Matrix June 20

      News

      The Lotto Matrix: Idaho Lottery Gives Back, NASPL Seminar, Dumpster Diving and More

      Lottery winners paying it forward, losing tickets in the trash, and state lotteries paying big dividends

      July 26, 2024

      Erik Gibbs

      Get Weekly Email Updates

      "*" indicates required fields

      News, features, and original reporting on industry happenings, lottery results, rules and regulations, and more.

      • About
      • Contact
      • Privacy
      • Terms
      • Disclosure
      • Responsible Gaming

      © 2025 Lottery Geeks. Web Design by Fhoke.