Lotto Couriers Support Texas Senate Bill To Block Bulk Purchases
It may be a late effort to curry favor with Texas lawmakers, but Jackpocket and others are backing the legislation
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The Coalition of Texas Lotto Couriers (CTLC) is supporting a bill in the Texas Senate that bans the sale of Texas Lottery tickets to those attempting to purchase all possible winning tickets for a drawing.
SB 1346, co-authored by Sens. Bryan Hughes and Paul Bettencourt, is currently pending in the upper chamber’s Committee on State Affairs following Monday’s hearing. The Texas Lottery has faced withering criticism from lawmakers for the last few weeks regarding a pair of high-payout jackpots spanning the last two years, contributing to the resignation of Commissioner Clark Smith.
Last month, Gov. Greg Abbott ordered the Texas Rangers to investigate a $95 million jackpot win in April 2023 and an $83.5 million jackpot won Feb. 17. Lotto couriers in the Lone Star State have come under fire for last month’s jackpot payout after it was revealed the retail site where the winning ticket purchased through lotto courier Jackpocket is also owned by Jackpocket.
Jackpocket, along with Jackpot.com and Lotto.com, released a statement Monday that read:
The Coalition of Texas Lottery Couriers (CTLC) — Jackpocket, Jackpot.com and Lotto.com — strongly supports SB 1346 by Senator Bryan Hughes, which was heard and discussed by the Senate Committee on State Affairs today.
SB 1346 calls for the prohibition of sales of Texas Lottery tickets to those attempting to purchase all possible winning tickets for a drawing.
This practice, commonly referred to as “bulk purchasing,” cannot be performed using a lottery courier service platform, and our companies have never engaged in the facilitation or fulfillment of bulk purchasing activity.
On the contrary, we have for years advocated for statewide regulatory standards, including a prohibition on bulk purchases, and have been consistently told by the Texas Lottery Commission that it did not have the authority to regulate lottery couriers.
Lottery couriers, which have been legally and responsibly operating in Texas since 2019, while always maintaining a transparent and professional relationship with the Texas Lottery Commission, will continue to encourage a regulatory solution, such as the one proposed by HB 3201, which allows our millions of Texas customers to continue to safely and conveniently order lottery tickets using our services.
Is it too little, too late though?
The CTLC’s support of SB 1346 could be interpreted as a late effort to curry favor with lawmakers who support banning lotto couriers from the state. A bill (SB 28) by Sen. Bob Hall that would ban lotto courier services and lotto apps unanimously passed the Senate last month. It has a companion bill in the lower chamber (HB 389) waiting to be heard by the Licensing & Administrative Procedures Committee.
The Texas Lottery, which has tried to placate Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick after he threatened to shut down the state agency if courier apps were not banned, released a policy statement moving to ban lottery courier services. The TLC also announced that all courier services in Texas would be investigated and limited lottery terminals to five per retail location.
