{"id":324840,"date":"2024-07-10T11:49:52","date_gmt":"2024-07-10T16:49:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=324840"},"modified":"2024-07-15T16:04:59","modified_gmt":"2024-07-15T21:04:59","slug":"texas-lottery-blasted-over-loophole-that-let-syndicate-win-95m","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/texas-lottery-blasted-over-loophole-that-let-syndicate-win-95m\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas Lottery Blasted Over Loophole That Let Syndicate Win $95M"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Texas legislative commission blames the state lottery for failing to plug a loophole that allowed a New Jersey-based lottery syndicate to walk off with a $95 million jackpot.<\/p>\n

\"Texas
The Texas Lottery is under fire for its \u201cpassive\u201d reaction to courier services that create a loophole allowing the draw to be mathematically exploitable under certain conditions. (Image: CW39 Houston<\/em>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Sunset Advisory Committee (SAC) is tasked with reviewing the performance of state agencies before recommending how they can be improved or even determining that they should be abolished. In a newly published report, the SAC reserves some harsh words for the Texas Lottery Commission (TLC) and especially its tolerance of \u201ccourier companies.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

It was thanks to the courier system that the shadowy New Jersey syndicate, known as Rook TX, was able to purchase 25.8 million tickets for a Texas Lottery draw, which guaranteed that it would win the jackpot and pretty much all of the other prizes as well.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The SAC said the TLC had become \u201cstagnant\u201d and \u201cpassive\u201d in its failure to react to the loophole. This created a situation where ordinary Texans who entered that day\u2019s draw were unaware they only had a shot at half the big prize, at best.<\/p>\n

Lottery Becomes Exploitable <\/strong><\/h2>\n

The April 22, 2023, Texas Lottery draw was one of those rare occasions when the lottery becomes mathematically exploitable<\/a>, but only if you have the means to buy up all possible combinations of numbers, which just so happens to be 25.8 million.<\/p>\n

After 93 rollovers, the jackpot had grown to $95 million. So, the syndicate realized that it would need to risk $25.8 million in $1 lottery tickets to be guaranteed a $95 million jackpot, which would be $57.8 million after state and federal taxes. Even if the syndicate was unlucky enough to share the first prize with another winner, it would still make a small profit.<\/p>\n

\n

A three-way split would have been a disaster, but considering the Texas lottery only sells one to two million tickets per draw, it was a very low-risk proposition \u2013 and hey, that\u2019s why they call it gambling.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Meanwhile, the syndicate would also vacuum up 289 second prizes for matching five or six numbers, plus all the lower prizes, adding roughly another $2.5 million to the haul.<\/p>\n

So, how was the syndicate able to buy 25.8 million tickets when the Lottery normally only sells 2 million on a good day? The answer is lottery couriers.<\/p>\n

\u2018Hooked on Montana\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Lottery courier services are third-party outfits that sell tickets online through mobile apps. They fulfill orders from customers by purchasing tickets in bulk from licensed retailers. Generally, the courier service handles the process of collecting and distributing winnings to their customers.<\/p>\n

\n

After the draw, it was announced the winning ticket was sold by an outlet called Lottery Now, based in a shopping mall in Colleyville. But when reporters arrived, they found a business called \u201cHooked on Montana,\u201d which organized fishing trips for tourists to the Big Sky State.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Nevertheless, Hooked on Montana was licensed to sell lottery tickets. Its owner, Richard Wheeler, told USA Today<\/em> he had started doing some lottery couriering as a spin-off from his main business. He sold more than 11 million lottery tickets to Rook TX.<\/p>\n

Currently, only two states, New York and New Jersey, have legalized and licensed courier businesses, but they are tolerated in many other states \u2013 too much so in Texas for the SAC\u2019s liking.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Texas legislative commission blames the state lottery for failing to plug a loophole that allowed a New Jersey-based lottery syndicate to walk off with a $95 million jackpot. The Sunset Advisory Committee (SAC) is tasked with reviewing the performance of state agencies before recommending how they can be improved or even determining that they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":324842,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13699,61,13592],"tags":[91635,91639,90651,91637,90650],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nTexas Lottery Blasted Over Loophole that Let Syndicate win $95M<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Texas Lottery Commission criticized over courier services that allowed Rook TX to win a $95 million jackpot by buying up 25.8 million tickets\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/texas-lottery-blasted-over-loophole-that-let-syndicate-win-95m\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Texas Lottery Blasted Over Loophole that Let Syndicate win $95M\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Texas Lottery Commission criticized over courier services that allowed Rook TX to win a $95 million jackpot by buying up 25.8 million tickets\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/texas-lottery-blasted-over-loophole-that-let-syndicate-win-95m\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-07-10T16:49:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-07-15T21:04:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/texas-lottery.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"562\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/texas-lottery-blasted-over-loophole-that-let-syndicate-win-95m\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/texas-lottery-blasted-over-loophole-that-let-syndicate-win-95m\/\",\"name\":\"Texas Lottery Blasted Over Loophole that Let Syndicate win $95M\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/texas-lottery-blasted-over-loophole-that-let-syndicate-win-95m\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/texas-lottery-blasted-over-loophole-that-let-syndicate-win-95m\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/texas-lottery.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-07-10T16:49:52+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-07-15T21:04:59+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Texas Lottery Commission criticized over courier services that allowed Rook TX to win a $95 million jackpot by buying up 25.8 million tickets\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/texas-lottery-blasted-over-loophole-that-let-syndicate-win-95m\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/texas-lottery-blasted-over-loophole-that-let-syndicate-win-95m\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/texas-lottery-blasted-over-loophole-that-let-syndicate-win-95m\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/texas-lottery.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/texas-lottery.jpg\",\"width\":1000,\"height\":562,\"caption\":\"The Texas Lottery is under fire for its \u201cpassive\u201d reaction to courier services that create a loophole allowing the draw to be mathematically exploitable under certain conditions. (Image: CW39 Houston)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/texas-lottery-blasted-over-loophole-that-let-syndicate-win-95m\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Lottery\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/lottery\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Texas Lottery Blasted Over Loophole That Let Syndicate Win $95M\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Casino.org\",\"description\":\"Latest Casino and Gaming News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\",\"name\":\"Philip Conneller\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"Philip Conneller\"},\"description\":\"In Philip Conneller\u2019s eight years with Casino.org, he has covered the gaming industry from Las Vegas to Macau and everything in between. He currently focuses his coverage on gaming law, white-collar crime, global money laundering, tribal gaming, politics, and regulation. Philip was the original features editor for poker\u2019s Bluff Magazine and editor for Bluff Europe, which he helped launch. His writing has also been featured in ESPN, Forbes, Time Out, The Sun, and The Daily Star, as well as iGaming Business, eGaming Review, and numerous other industry news and tech websites. His news stories for Casino.org\/news have been linked by The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, People Magazine, and Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, among many others. Philip once won $20,000 with 7-2 off-suit. He has been reprimanded for unwittingly playing Elton John\u2019s piano on two separate occasions on both sides of the Atlantic. He became a writer because he is a lousy pianist. Philip lives outside London with his wife and children, where he spends his time agonizing about Arsenal FC. Contact Philip at philip.conneller@casino.org.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/muckrack.com\/philip-conneller\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/philip-conneller-1495a48\/?originalSubdomain=uk\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/casinoorgphilc\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/phillip-conneller\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Texas Lottery Blasted Over Loophole that Let Syndicate win $95M","description":"Texas Lottery Commission criticized over courier services that allowed Rook TX to win a $95 million jackpot by buying up 25.8 million tickets","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/texas-lottery-blasted-over-loophole-that-let-syndicate-win-95m\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Texas Lottery Blasted Over Loophole that Let Syndicate win $95M","og_description":"Texas Lottery Commission criticized over courier services that allowed Rook TX to win a $95 million jackpot by buying up 25.8 million tickets","og_url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/texas-lottery-blasted-over-loophole-that-let-syndicate-win-95m\/","og_site_name":"Casino.org","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews","article_published_time":"2024-07-10T16:49:52+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-07-15T21:04:59+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1000,"height":562,"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/texas-lottery.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Philip Conneller","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@casinoorgphilc","twitter_site":"@Casino_Org","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Philip Conneller","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/texas-lottery-blasted-over-loophole-that-let-syndicate-win-95m\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/texas-lottery-blasted-over-loophole-that-let-syndicate-win-95m\/","name":"Texas Lottery Blasted Over Loophole that Let Syndicate win $95M","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/texas-lottery-blasted-over-loophole-that-let-syndicate-win-95m\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/texas-lottery-blasted-over-loophole-that-let-syndicate-win-95m\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/texas-lottery.jpg","datePublished":"2024-07-10T16:49:52+00:00","dateModified":"2024-07-15T21:04:59+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b"},"description":"Texas Lottery Commission criticized over courier services that allowed Rook TX to win a $95 million jackpot by buying up 25.8 million tickets","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/texas-lottery-blasted-over-loophole-that-let-syndicate-win-95m\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/texas-lottery-blasted-over-loophole-that-let-syndicate-win-95m\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/texas-lottery-blasted-over-loophole-that-let-syndicate-win-95m\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/texas-lottery.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/texas-lottery.jpg","width":1000,"height":562,"caption":"The Texas Lottery is under fire for its \u201cpassive\u201d reaction to courier services that create a loophole allowing the draw to be mathematically exploitable under certain conditions. (Image: CW39 Houston)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/texas-lottery-blasted-over-loophole-that-let-syndicate-win-95m\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Lottery","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/lottery\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Texas Lottery Blasted Over Loophole That Let Syndicate Win $95M"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/","name":"Casino.org","description":"Latest Casino and Gaming News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b","name":"Philip Conneller","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png","caption":"Philip Conneller"},"description":"In Philip Conneller\u2019s eight years with Casino.org, he has covered the gaming industry from Las Vegas to Macau and everything in between. He currently focuses his coverage on gaming law, white-collar crime, global money laundering, tribal gaming, politics, and regulation. Philip was the original features editor for poker\u2019s Bluff Magazine and editor for Bluff Europe, which he helped launch. His writing has also been featured in ESPN, Forbes, Time Out, The Sun, and The Daily Star, as well as iGaming Business, eGaming Review, and numerous other industry news and tech websites. His news stories for Casino.org\/news have been linked by The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, People Magazine, and Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, among many others. Philip once won $20,000 with 7-2 off-suit. He has been reprimanded for unwittingly playing Elton John\u2019s piano on two separate occasions on both sides of the Atlantic. He became a writer because he is a lousy pianist. Philip lives outside London with his wife and children, where he spends his time agonizing about Arsenal FC. Contact Philip at philip.conneller@casino.org.","sameAs":["https:\/\/muckrack.com\/philip-conneller","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/philip-conneller-1495a48\/?originalSubdomain=uk","https:\/\/x.com\/casinoorgphilc"],"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/phillip-conneller\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324840"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=324840"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324840\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":325253,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324840\/revisions\/325253"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}