AUSTIN (Nexstar) — As state lawmakers decide the future of the Texas Lottery Commission (TLC), a Texas woman who won an $83.5 million Lotto Texas jackpot is asking a judge to order the acting executive director of the commission to pay out the winnings.

The woman, known as “Jane Doe” in the lawsuit, purchased the winning ticket through a lottery courier service known as Jackpocket. A courier service allows players to purchase a ticket over the phone via an app without having to go into a physical store.

The woman purchased $20 worth of tickets over the app and learned she won the jackpot on Feb. 17. She and her attorney presented the winning ticket to the TLC on March 18 and to this day have still not been paid.

Her attorney, Randy Howry, said the commission told him and his client back in March the winnings may not be paid out pending a Texas Rangers investigation into her lottery drawing and another drawing from April 2023.

A spokesperson for the TLC tells Nexstar, “External investigations involving the April 22, 2023 and Feb. 17, 2025 Lotto Texas jackpots remain ongoing. As these matters are the subject of pending litigation and investigations, we are unable to provide additional information at this time.”

But Howry says he and his client have not been contacted by anyone from the Texas Rangers, the Governor’s office, or the Attorney General’s office in regards to the Feb. 17 lottery drawing.

“Nothing has been said. It’s been totally dark for the last three months,” Howry said.

“In Texas, a deal is a deal, unless you are the Texas Lottery,” the lawsuit reads. “It shouldn’t take a lawsuit to get paid when you win the lottery.”

The suit claims the TLC validated the legitimacy of the winning ticket held by Jane Doe, but the commission, and its acting director Sergio Rey, have refused to pay. It goes on to say the refusal is happening “apparently at the behest of one or more elected office holders.”

“Are the government officials behind it? Of course they are. They’re the ones holding up the payments of these funds on the pretense that an investigation has to take place, and in that investigation, no one has even talked to our client,” Howry said. He and his client are calling on Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, and Attorney General Ken Paxton to answer why they are not being paid.

Patrick has been outspoken against the TLC and lottery couriers. He investigated the retailer where the Feb. 17 lottery ticket was printed, Winners Corner, which is also owned by Jackpocket, a subsidiary of Draftkings. He posted multiple videos on social media where he tried to get into the back of the store, where at one point there were 47 lottery terminals to print out lottery tickets. New rules passed by the commission after the Feb. 17 jackpot allow a retailer to only have at most five terminals.

Patrick and state lawmakers argue lottery courier services were not legal in the state and claim the TLC acted beyond its authority to provide legitimacy for multiple courier companies to move in and operate in Texas.

In April of 2023, an entity known as Rook TX won a $95 million jackpot. Another lawsuit filed in Texas alleges Rook TX, along with the help of multiple lottery courier services, spent more than $25 million to purchase almost every single number combination to almost ensure a winning ticket. Those winnings were paid out, and there are beliefs that the money left the country. Some lawmakers have even called it a money laundering scheme.

“If we have a lottery game, we need to close down the Lottery Commission and turn it over to our department of Texas licensing, TDLR,” Patrick said.

The lawsuit filed this week claims that in Oct. 2018, the commission, “wrote to Jackpocket on official Commission letterhead and advised Jackpocket that it did not require Jackpocket to ‘obtain a license or other authorization from the Commission’ to perform lottery ticket courier services.”

Ryan Mindell, the former executive director of the TLC, announced lottery courier services were not legal in the state a week after the Feb. 17 drawing. Mindell eventually resigned from his position and Rey has filled in for the time being.

The future of the lottery

State Sen. Bob Hall, R-Edgewood, filed a bill in the Senate that would terminate the TLC and place the lottery and charitable bingo underneath the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation for at least two years.

It passed the Senate and is expected to be heard on the floor of the House very soon. Howry and his client are concerned that money could disappear if the TLC is eliminated. They are asking a judge to issue an order to preserve the funds and prevent Rey and the Commission from using any of her $83.5 million winnings to pay out other lottery prize winners.

“Regardless of what the lottery does, or what agency takes them over, we want to ensure the money is still there,” Howry said.