A Texas-sized battle over the future of the Texas State Lottery took a major turn last week when the Texas Senate passed a bill that dissolves the Texas Lottery Commission entirely. Under the terms of SB 3070, control of the Texas Lottery will move from the, now defunct, Texas Lottery Commission to the Department. The bill also bans the use of lottery courier services in the state.
Over the past few years, the Lone Star State has experienced a stream of lottery-related problems, mostly related to courier services that allow out-of-state players to participate in the lottery remotely. The bill took particular inspiration from a 2023 scheme launched by out-of-state players that involved a group using a courier service to purchase 26,000,000 tickets. That move netted the group a whopping $95 million win.
Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick explained the bill in comments reported on by the Dallas Express saying, “We’ve abolished the Lottery Commission. We’re moving operations of the state lottery to the Department of Licensing and Regulation,” said Patrick. “It bans lottery couriers. All lottery ticket sales must be in person. It limits ticket sales to 100 tickets per transaction. It adds criminal penalties. It establishes a two-year trial period—and we can ban it in two years if the TDLR does not operate it as we instruct them to.”
Patrick would be authorized as a State Lottery Inspector under the bill. “It authorizes the governor, myself, and the attorney general, and the speaker as inspectors. Now I’ll be a lottery inspector, and I can drop in and go anywhere I want to make sure everything is on the up and up,” he added.
SB 130 now heads to the Texas State Legislature for final approval.