Texas Lottery Executive Director Resigns Amid Controversy

Tension rise for the Texas Lottery Commision as executive director, Ryan Mindell, resigned from his position this week.

The Texas Lottery has received harsh scrutiny by Texas government officials like Govenor Greg Abbott and Texas Attorney General, Ken Paxton. The integrity of the lottery is being questioned after officials launch an investigation looking for flaws in the lottery courier system.

What are lottery couriers?

According to the Texas Lottery Commission, "Lottery couriers are unregulated service providers that take lottery ticket orders from customers online, either through an Internet website on a computer, or by using an application on a mobile device."

Once the courier service receives payment, they then jump into action:

"The courier sends a representative to purchase lottery tickets in person from a licensed brick-and-mortar lottery retailer with whom the courier has a private business arrangement. The courier transmits a scanned image of the ticket to the customer and retains the ticket until it is determined to be a winning or non-winning ticket. Couriers charge a fee for their service to purchase and manage their customers’ tickets."

Courier services spark controversy

One particular store pushed Texas law makers to look into the integrity of courier services after a massive 83.5 million dollar win was purchased at one of the top winning stores. Winners Corner TX LLC store in Austin has sold multiple multi-million dollar lottery tickets, some through their courier service.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick took investigating into his own hands and went to visit that particular Austin store in person. "Do you not see an issue where the public might lose confidence if the courier service somehow happened at this one location in the entire state of Texas sold an $83 million winning ticket, and they also own the location that printed the ticket?" Patrick asked a store employee.

Now, lawmakers are pushing Senate Bill 28, which would block Texas Lottery tickets from being sold online or by an app.