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Posted

As any Surly 1% knows, you can't land a 747 at most of the podunk airports in SEC towns. 

So what you have to do is fly your 747 to Atlanta or somewhere and then fly your Gulfstream into Oxford, Tuscaloosa, etc.

  • 4 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...
Posted

In Texas it's 20 years IIRC, and that would be $50k per year BEFORE taxes.

Might be a good idea for someone who completely sucks at handling money, I guess.

Posted
9 minutes ago, slorch said:

In Texas it's 20 years IIRC, and that would be $50k per year BEFORE taxes.

Might be a good idea for someone who completely sucks at handling money, I guess.

except almost no one takes the annuity.  dont know the exact percentages, but I remember seeing reports that a very large majority of winners that had both options took the lump sum.

 

Posted (edited)

If we're talking $1B or $1M, I'm saying that is a big differentiating factor in making that decision. $1M could help someone immediately with buying their house and paying off all debt.  I'm not gonna spread that out over 20 years.  $1B is life changing/ generational money.  I could see annuitizing it out of safety or protecting yourself.  Personally, I'm probably still taking the lump sum on the big tally and paying someone to manage it for me( not my drunk uncle.)

 

I am LOLing as we seriously discuss considerations for something that will probably never happen to us.

Edited by slorch
Posted
53 minutes ago, slorch said:

If we're talking $1B or $1M, I'm saying that is a big differentiating factor in making that decision. $1M could help someone immediately with buying their house and paying off all debt.  I'm not gonna spread that out over 20 years.  $1B is life changing/ generational money.  I could see annuitizing it out of safety or protecting yourself.  Personally, I'm probably still taking the lump sum on the big tally and paying someone to manage it for me( not my drunk uncle.)

 

I am LOLing as we seriously discuss considerations for something that will probably never happen to us.

Take the money and let someone waaaaaay smarter grow it.  Every time. 

  • Hook 'Em 1
Posted
9 minutes ago, fattyflattie said:

Take the money and let someone waaaaaay smarter grow it.  Every time. 

I would be tempted to put a large amount of the winnings into a high dividend ETF for a 5% return. Live off the dividends. They will most likely grow with inflation.

  • Hook 'Em 1
Posted
Just now, Nice Guy Eddie said:

I would be tempted to put a large amount of the winnings into a high dividend ETF for a 5% return. Live off the dividends. They will most likely grow with inflation.

With that type of money, you are open to an entire new world of investments.    Obviously want to keep a big chunk of it safe, but you’d have some great ops to significantly grow it. 

Posted
5 minutes ago, fattyflattie said:

With that type of money, you are open to an entire new world of investments.    Obviously want to keep a big chunk of it safe, but you’d have some great ops to significantly grow it. 

I would be extremely satisfied with half billion dollars. I wouldn't see any need to grow it significantly and take on that risk. After all I didn't get the money for any talent other than handing a convenience store clerk $2. 

While those great opportunities could perhaps double your money, they could also take a fair amount of it away. And honesty I would have zero ability to recreate that wealth if I started to lose it. I can be honest with myself with that.

Posted
21 hours ago, crash_davis said:

I just want a million dollars, not the eleventy billion or whatever it is now. A million more dollars and then I can retire comfortably.

That's great. I'll take the other 1,497 million, thanks. 

 

  • Hook 'Em 3
Posted

Am I doing the math wrong here or what?

Annuity would be $85m a year 

Lump sum $756m.

I would bet 99% of folks would be smarter to take the annuity. If you managed it perfectly (didnt spend like a drunken sailor) and the economy stayed rock solid, it is believable you could turn it into 1.7b in 20 years, but why take that risk?

Posted
10 minutes ago, HOOKEM4 said:

I would bet 99% of folks would be smarter to take the annuity. If you managed it perfectly (didnt spend like a drunken sailor) and the economy stayed rock solid, it is believable you could turn it into 1.7b in 20 years, but why take that risk?

age or health can be a huge factor. 

Posted

That’s also not how the annuity works. It starts out less and increases, annually, over time.

You also have to account for taxes, annually, and future taxes (ann unknown) and time value of money.

In Texas I believe your take home if you chose the lump sum would be just under $500mm, including the 24% federal tax on lottery winnings, which would then be subject to 37% income tax the following year.

So you would have north of $300mm (if you received 0% return in the interim) after paying taxes.

Take the lump sum. If you manage to go broke at least you were L.I.V.I.N.

 

 

 

Posted
12 hours ago, Fico said:

That’s also not how the annuity works. It starts out less and increases, annually, over time.

You also have to account for taxes, annually, and future taxes (ann unknown) and time value of money.

In Texas I believe your take home if you chose the lump sum would be just under $500mm, including the 24% federal tax on lottery winnings, which would then be subject to 37% income tax the following year.

So you would have north of $300mm (if you received 0% return in the interim) after paying taxes.

Take the lump sum. If you manage to go broke at least you were L.I.V.I.N.

 

 

 

Not to mention that I’m almost certain the annuity is only payable to the purchaser (may have a spousal exemption) but payments are not transferable to the estate or decedents upon death.  

Posted

Fuck California and the Midway Market & Liquor store

Quote

A single ticket sold in California scored the second-largest jackpot in Powerball and US lottery history during Wednesday night’s drawing, according to Powerball.

The winning numbers are 22, 24, 40, 52, 64 and the Powerball 10. The ticket to snag the estimated jackpot of more than $1.7 billion was sold at Midway Market & Liquor in Frazier Park, California, roughly 70 miles north of Los Angeles, according to the California Lottery.

 

  • Rage+1 1
Posted
51 minutes ago, Wally Fairway said:

Fuck California and the Midway Market & Liquor store

 

Every.  Fucking.  Time.

 

I still don't think there's ever been a PowerBall or MegaMillions ticket more than $2mm sold in TX.  

 

Guess I'll have to go spend my $12 on Texas Two Step tonight

Posted
46 minutes ago, Trey3216 said:

I still don't think there's ever been a PowerBall or MegaMillions ticket more than $2mm sold in TX.  

Guess I'll have to go spend my $12 on Texas Two Step tonight

I don't think anyone cared, because Powerball was well over a billy; but the Mega $360 millly winner on Monday (yes this Monday 10/9/2023) was in San Angelo. And the attached article states this is the 14th Powerball winner in Texas.
https://www.expressnews.com/news/article/san-angelo-mega-millions-jackpot-18415287

Looking the google machine tells me 2 Powerball winners in Texas, since 2010 (when it joined) 

FWIW - I didn't know it either because who cares about $360 milly, when we are talking about billions

Posted
1 minute ago, Wally Fairway said:

I don't think anyone cared, because Powerball was well over a billy; but the Mega $360 millly winner on Monday (yes this Monday 10/9/2023) was in San Angelo. And the attached article states this is the 14th Powerball winner in Texas.
https://www.expressnews.com/news/article/san-angelo-mega-millions-jackpot-18415287

Looking the google machine tells me 2 Powerball winners in Texas, since 2010 (when it joined) 

FWIW - I didn't know it either because who cares about $360 milly, when we are talking about billions

walter-lebowski-i-did-not-know-that.gif

Posted
18 minutes ago, Wally Fairway said:

I didn't know it either because who cares about $360 milly,

well we're only really talking about +/- 50K after taxes as explained above, so who really does care???

Posted
I don't think anyone cared, because Powerball was well over a billy; but the Mega $360 millly winner on Monday (yes this Monday 10/9/2023) was in San Angelo. And the attached article states this is the 14th Powerball winner in Texas.
https://www.expressnews.com/news/article/san-angelo-mega-millions-jackpot-18415287
Looking the google machine tells me 2 Powerball winners in Texas, since 2010 (when it joined) 
FWIW - I didn't know it either because who cares about $360 milly, when we are talking about billions

giphy.gif
Posted
22 hours ago, Biff Tannen said:

This was not LA.  This was the middle of the desert nothing town.

Frazier Park is up in the mountains off of I5, aka 'the grapevine'. Many pine trees, often snows. No desert.

Posted

Probably already been covered here, but what's the most yall have ever won? 


I won a few hundred bucks on a scratch off when I was a kid. As for lotto, the most I've ever gotten was 4/6 numbers, which was like 50 bucks. 

Posted

I won $100 a couple times on the old World Series of poker scratch offs. My biggest single line win in lotto/draw was probably the $12 on two different lines this past week.

Posted
38 minutes ago, otisdog said:

Frazier Park is up in the mountains off of I5, aka 'the grapevine'. Many pine trees, often snows. No desert.

Well I just saw it's across the highway from Neenach, which is the middle of nothing desert, so I assumed.  Folks out there in my experience are...interesting.

  • 1 year later...
Posted (edited)

I love how the lottery commission has now admitted that perhaps they shouldn't have gone out of their way to help a single store print every possible lottery combination. They agree it could be perceived as unfair which is an understatement of the year.

I assume lottery directors or officials are someone's brother in law.

Edited by Nice Guy Eddie
Posted
15 minutes ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

I love how the lottery commission has now admitted that perhaps they shouldn't have gone out of their way to help a single store print every possible lottery combination. They agree it could be perceived as unfair which is an understatement of the year.

I assume lottery directors or officials are someone's brother in law.

The corruption in current Texas statewide government, after 3+ decades of one-party rule, is now complete and total.  There is not a single aspect of our state government that does not have, as its first and highest mission, the mission of diverting dollars into the pockets of the favored few.

That the lottery is among them should come as ZERO surprise.

Posted

The lottery system has always been about making money not offering a fair and transparent game. I recall when they were aghast at people complaining that scratch tickets' stated odds were wrong once the top prizes were redeemed.

Posted (edited)

Texas to investigate lottery jackpots as questions swirl about online ticketing firms | CNN Business

Spoiler

Texas’ governor has directed state law enforcement to investigate two controversial lottery jackpots amid growing scrutiny over the role of online ticketing firms in the state.

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott asked the Texas Rangers to investigate two jackpots involving virtual ticket sales: this month’s $83.5 million prize, and a $95 million jackpot from 2023 won by a group of investors. Both cases, according to government officials, affect the public’s confidence in the lottery.

“Texans must be able to trust in our state’s lottery system and know that the lottery is conducted with integrity and lawfully,” Abbott said Monday in a news release, as lawmakers blasted the Texas Lottery Commission for failing to regulate lottery couriers.

 

Lottery tickets may be bought virtually in Texas using firms known as lottery courier services. Couriers collect the tickets for customers at physical stores they often own. Critics argue the practice makes it impossible to verify the legality of the buyers and is vulnerable to money laundering.

Lottery couriers, which have been operating in the state since 2019, became a focus in April 2023 after a single entity bought 25 million lottery tickets in less than 72 hours using a courier service, CNN affiliate WFAA reported. The investor doubled its money because the jackpot was so high, and the winner took home $57.8 million before taxes, WFAA said.

The Texas Lottery Commission has launched an investigation into all courier services operating in the state and has limited the number of lottery terminals allowed to five per retailer, it said in a statement.

Courier services used across the country

Courier services are operating in 19 states, according to a 2023 Florida Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability report.

Only three states – New York, New Jersey and Arkansas – regulate the courier service industry, according to a 2024 Texas House report. Without those regulations in Texas, couriers aren’t required to obtain a license or permission from the Texas Lottery to operate, the report found.

The odds of winning the Lotto Texas game are 1/25,827,165, though those odds can be improved by purchasing multiple tickets, and in theory, there’s no limit on the number of tickets one person can buy, according to WFAA.

Courier services contributed to $101 million in lottery ticket sales over the first seven months of the 2023 financial year in Texas, according to the Texas House report.

The winning ticket for this month’s $83.5 million prize was purchased through a courier service at an Austin retail store, WFAA reported.

Texas Lottery Commissioner Clark Smith resigned Friday amid the mounting controversy, according to WFAA.

Texas Lottery is moving to ban courier services from operating in the state “to ensure all ticket sales comply with state law and agency regulation as well as to maintain public trust,” Texas Lottery Commission Executive Director Ryan Mindell said.

“Lottery courier services operating in Texas have been a significant concern for many of our stakeholders. Previously, the agency interpreted its authority as not extending to the regulation or prohibition of these services,” Mindell said in a news release.

However, after a review of the State Lottery Act and “information from recent retailer investigations,” the commission “will revoke the license of a retailer that works with or assists a courier service,” Mindell said.

The Coalition of Texas Lottery Couriers called the lottery commission’s announcement “abrupt, disappointing and unnecessary” in a statement reported by WFAA.

“Lottery couriers have been legally and responsibly operating in Texas since 2019, while always maintaining a transparent and professional relationship with the Texas Lottery Commission,” the group said.

“Throughout this process, the TLC has claimed to have no regulatory authority over courier activities, despite couriers’ persistent requests to be regulated, just as we are in other states.”

Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick slammed the Texas Lottery’s announcement in a post to social media. “I’ve never read so much garbage from a state agency press release in my 18 years in office,” Patrick wrote. “Today’s action is an obvious admission that the Texas Lottery Commission had the oversight authority all along and allowed these businesses to creep into Texas and undermine the integrity of the Texas Lottery.”

In another post, Patrick asked the Texas Rangers to expand its investigation beyond the two specific incidents to “any and all matters related to the Lottery Commission first allowing lottery couriers into Texas and any and all possible crimes internally or externally arising from the Lottery Commission’s actions or failures to act.”

Last week, Patrick visited the courier-owned Austin retail store that sold the $83.5 million winning ticket and questioned one of its workers about how the business operates in a video posted to social media.

This story has been updated with additional information.

Listened to a podcast who had the person who investigated this on and described what was going on, quite fascinating:

International syndicate bought almost every numeric combination for 2023 Lotto Texas

Spoiler

The mystery is solved.

Who won last year’s enormous $95 million Lotto Texas jackpot?

The official announcement placed the winner in Colleyville. But when I went to the storefront where the winning ticket was sold, it was the strangest lottery store I ever saw.

There were no signs indicating that lottery tickets were sold there. The place was billed as “Hooked on MT,” which promotes Montana fishing.

Related:Texas Lottery turns blind eye to what are in effect online ticket sales, critics say

It didn’t take long for The Watchdog to figure out that a syndicate had pooled its money together and spent almost $26 million to buy every possible numeric combination.

What a gamble! Spend $26 million to maybe win the $95 million (payout $57.8 million after taxes).

It worked. There was one jackpot winner, but as permitted under Texas lottery rules, the identity of winners of high-dollar prizes can remain undisclosed. That happened here.

Since then, fallout has been immense. Some think the integrity of the lottery has been compromised. How could regular players buying $1 tickets stand a chance competing against someone who bought $26 million worth of tickets for the Lotto Texas draw?

State lawmakers are studying lottery rules to determine how and if players can legally compete using phone apps and computer software.

And how does someone buy $26 million in entries over a 3-day period? In Texas, the rule is you must be physically present to buy a ticket over the counter of a retail store. The lottery changed that during the pandemic to allow e-purchases. Critics say that violates the intent of the law, which was to keep sales sold the old-fashioned way.

Related:Syndicates are spending millions of dollars on Texas’ lottery to beat out everyone else

All of the above I first reported last year. But I didn’t know who bought the winning tickets and how they did it. Now thanks to Houston Chronicle reporter Eric Dexheimer, who spent weeks on the story, a vivid picture of how this went down emerges.

 

It’s not a pretty picture.

Winner in Maltese?

According to the Chronicle, the winner was a company called Rook TX. But don’t be fooled by the TX. It’s a Delaware-based company with a registered agent in New Jersey.

The scheme was organized by a Maltese businessman, the Chronicle learned. The massive purchase was apparently funded by a London betting company called Colossus Bets, which puts together betting syndicates like this one.

In Texas, only four lottery outlets sold nearly 26 million tickets in three days.

The Colleyville store, for instance, sold 11 million tickets in the 72-hour sales period. How is that physically possible?

Related:Texas lottery loophole lets phone apps beat the system

Four lottery stores like the one in Colleyville asked the lottery commission for an extra dozen computer terminals to handle the massive sales. The lottery complied. More terminals meant more sales — but not necessarily to Texans.

What seems to have happened is these terminals in four lottery sales companies in Texas used special software to run 24/7 to sell that many tickets.

The lottery commission did not respond to The Watchdog’s written questions for this story. But a spokesperson told the Chronicle no laws or rules were broken.

State Sen. Bob Hall, R-Canton, challenged the lottery to adhere to its roots and not modernize sales through phones, computers and the Internet — unless it gets legislative approval.

He wants the games “to be played in person and with cash.”

Lottery couriers

For this kind of huge purchase, one method used was iPads with QR codes containing number combinations that could be used by state-approved terminals and printed out, the Chronicle reported.

Lottery rules ban high-tech, third-party devices used to speed up purchases. The commission must approve the setup.

If phone apps and computer purchases are not allowed under lottery law, how could the lottery sell almost $26 million in tickets in only three days before the April 2023 drawing?

Related:Texas Lottery crashes through a barrier: The first scratch-off in U.S. for $100

The answer is couriers. Defenders of high-tech sales say the couriers are like DoorDash, but delivering tickets rather than food. They take the order, buy the product and deliver it.

Couriers take ticket orders from customers using an app on their phones or computers. Couriers claim they send a staffer to purchase tickets from licensed brick-and-mortar lottery retailers. A scanned image of the ticket is sent to the player.

They can move massive numbers of tickets electronically to licensed lottery stores.

Strangely, lottery officials say they can’t regulate couriers because theirs is a private business arrangement outside of the lottery’s jurisdiction.

Dawn Nettles of Garland, who runs the Texas Lotto Report gadfly website, asked in a letter to state lawmakers, “Why is the Texas Lottery defending the apps so fiercely? Answer: Sales were declining, and egos were hurting.”

This story matters to Texans because regular lotto players who hope to hit the big one are essentially snuffed out. The odds against regular players, who bought about $1.5 million in tickets for the drawing, were mathematically thwarted by international buyers from winning.

“Their chances drop considerably when wealthy, international players use modern tech to buy up almost all of the tickets, as what happened here,” Nettles wrote.

Sure, everyone has the same chance of winning the jackpot. But what happened here, Nettles told me, is that Texas players built the jackpot, and then outsiders came in and won the money by buying almost all combinations to almost guarantee a win.

This is more than about the questionable use of high-tech tools to buy tens of millions of dollars of game tickets at warp speed.

This seems like the definition of state-authorized greed.



Short version: International syndicate figured out that once Lotto Texas (and other lotteries around the world) jackpots get over a certain amount, they can just about guarantee a profit by buying up all the possible number combinations so they effectively "cover the board". They did this in Texas using what is called a lotto courier company who offer sales online. To stay within the confines of Texas Lotto rules they actually have to have the tickets printed even if they are bought online so somewhere there is an office setup with officially licensed/approved Texas Lotto machines/printers and they have to crank out all those tickets before the drawing deadline. That was allegedly the hardest part of this whole scheme was actually getting all the tickets printed. 

And now of course our political hero's see that they look bad because someone smarter than them gamed the system and they gotta put a stop to that...

Hot Dog Man GIF 

Edited by Evil Bill Obrien
Posted
On 2/20/2025 at 12:23 PM, Nice Guy Eddie said:

The lottery system has always been about making money not offering a fair and transparent game. I recall when they were aghast at people complaining that scratch tickets' stated odds were wrong once the top prizes were redeemed.

 

2 hours ago, Evil Bill Obrien said:

Texas to investigate lottery jackpots as questions swirl about online ticketing firms | CNN Business

  Reveal hidden contents

Texas’ governor has directed state law enforcement to investigate two controversial lottery jackpots amid growing scrutiny over the role of online ticketing firms in the state.

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott asked the Texas Rangers to investigate two jackpots involving virtual ticket sales: this month’s $83.5 million prize, and a $95 million jackpot from 2023 won by a group of investors. Both cases, according to government officials, affect the public’s confidence in the lottery.

“Texans must be able to trust in our state’s lottery system and know that the lottery is conducted with integrity and lawfully,” Abbott said Monday in a news release, as lawmakers blasted the Texas Lottery Commission for failing to regulate lottery couriers.

 

Lottery tickets may be bought virtually in Texas using firms known as lottery courier services. Couriers collect the tickets for customers at physical stores they often own. Critics argue the practice makes it impossible to verify the legality of the buyers and is vulnerable to money laundering.

Lottery couriers, which have been operating in the state since 2019, became a focus in April 2023 after a single entity bought 25 million lottery tickets in less than 72 hours using a courier service, CNN affiliate WFAA reported. The investor doubled its money because the jackpot was so high, and the winner took home $57.8 million before taxes, WFAA said.

The Texas Lottery Commission has launched an investigation into all courier services operating in the state and has limited the number of lottery terminals allowed to five per retailer, it said in a statement.

Courier services used across the country

Courier services are operating in 19 states, according to a 2023 Florida Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability report.

Only three states – New York, New Jersey and Arkansas – regulate the courier service industry, according to a 2024 Texas House report. Without those regulations in Texas, couriers aren’t required to obtain a license or permission from the Texas Lottery to operate, the report found.

The odds of winning the Lotto Texas game are 1/25,827,165, though those odds can be improved by purchasing multiple tickets, and in theory, there’s no limit on the number of tickets one person can buy, according to WFAA.

Courier services contributed to $101 million in lottery ticket sales over the first seven months of the 2023 financial year in Texas, according to the Texas House report.

The winning ticket for this month’s $83.5 million prize was purchased through a courier service at an Austin retail store, WFAA reported.

Texas Lottery Commissioner Clark Smith resigned Friday amid the mounting controversy, according to WFAA.

Texas Lottery is moving to ban courier services from operating in the state “to ensure all ticket sales comply with state law and agency regulation as well as to maintain public trust,” Texas Lottery Commission Executive Director Ryan Mindell said.

“Lottery courier services operating in Texas have been a significant concern for many of our stakeholders. Previously, the agency interpreted its authority as not extending to the regulation or prohibition of these services,” Mindell said in a news release.

However, after a review of the State Lottery Act and “information from recent retailer investigations,” the commission “will revoke the license of a retailer that works with or assists a courier service,” Mindell said.

The Coalition of Texas Lottery Couriers called the lottery commission’s announcement “abrupt, disappointing and unnecessary” in a statement reported by WFAA.

“Lottery couriers have been legally and responsibly operating in Texas since 2019, while always maintaining a transparent and professional relationship with the Texas Lottery Commission,” the group said.

“Throughout this process, the TLC has claimed to have no regulatory authority over courier activities, despite couriers’ persistent requests to be regulated, just as we are in other states.”

Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick slammed the Texas Lottery’s announcement in a post to social media. “I’ve never read so much garbage from a state agency press release in my 18 years in office,” Patrick wrote. “Today’s action is an obvious admission that the Texas Lottery Commission had the oversight authority all along and allowed these businesses to creep into Texas and undermine the integrity of the Texas Lottery.”

In another post, Patrick asked the Texas Rangers to expand its investigation beyond the two specific incidents to “any and all matters related to the Lottery Commission first allowing lottery couriers into Texas and any and all possible crimes internally or externally arising from the Lottery Commission’s actions or failures to act.”

Last week, Patrick visited the courier-owned Austin retail store that sold the $83.5 million winning ticket and questioned one of its workers about how the business operates in a video posted to social media.

This story has been updated with additional information.

Listened to a podcast who had the person who investigated this on and described what was going on, quite fascinating:

International syndicate bought almost every numeric combination for 2023 Lotto Texas

  Reveal hidden contents

The mystery is solved.

Who won last year’s enormous $95 million Lotto Texas jackpot?

The official announcement placed the winner in Colleyville. But when I went to the storefront where the winning ticket was sold, it was the strangest lottery store I ever saw.

There were no signs indicating that lottery tickets were sold there. The place was billed as “Hooked on MT,” which promotes Montana fishing.

Related:Texas Lottery turns blind eye to what are in effect online ticket sales, critics say

It didn’t take long for The Watchdog to figure out that a syndicate had pooled its money together and spent almost $26 million to buy every possible numeric combination.

What a gamble! Spend $26 million to maybe win the $95 million (payout $57.8 million after taxes).

It worked. There was one jackpot winner, but as permitted under Texas lottery rules, the identity of winners of high-dollar prizes can remain undisclosed. That happened here.

Since then, fallout has been immense. Some think the integrity of the lottery has been compromised. How could regular players buying $1 tickets stand a chance competing against someone who bought $26 million worth of tickets for the Lotto Texas draw?

State lawmakers are studying lottery rules to determine how and if players can legally compete using phone apps and computer software.

And how does someone buy $26 million in entries over a 3-day period? In Texas, the rule is you must be physically present to buy a ticket over the counter of a retail store. The lottery changed that during the pandemic to allow e-purchases. Critics say that violates the intent of the law, which was to keep sales sold the old-fashioned way.

Related:Syndicates are spending millions of dollars on Texas’ lottery to beat out everyone else

All of the above I first reported last year. But I didn’t know who bought the winning tickets and how they did it. Now thanks to Houston Chronicle reporter Eric Dexheimer, who spent weeks on the story, a vivid picture of how this went down emerges.

 

It’s not a pretty picture.

Winner in Maltese?

According to the Chronicle, the winner was a company called Rook TX. But don’t be fooled by the TX. It’s a Delaware-based company with a registered agent in New Jersey.

The scheme was organized by a Maltese businessman, the Chronicle learned. The massive purchase was apparently funded by a London betting company called Colossus Bets, which puts together betting syndicates like this one.

In Texas, only four lottery outlets sold nearly 26 million tickets in three days.

The Colleyville store, for instance, sold 11 million tickets in the 72-hour sales period. How is that physically possible?

Related:Texas lottery loophole lets phone apps beat the system

Four lottery stores like the one in Colleyville asked the lottery commission for an extra dozen computer terminals to handle the massive sales. The lottery complied. More terminals meant more sales — but not necessarily to Texans.

What seems to have happened is these terminals in four lottery sales companies in Texas used special software to run 24/7 to sell that many tickets.

The lottery commission did not respond to The Watchdog’s written questions for this story. But a spokesperson told the Chronicle no laws or rules were broken.

State Sen. Bob Hall, R-Canton, challenged the lottery to adhere to its roots and not modernize sales through phones, computers and the Internet — unless it gets legislative approval.

He wants the games “to be played in person and with cash.”

Lottery couriers

For this kind of huge purchase, one method used was iPads with QR codes containing number combinations that could be used by state-approved terminals and printed out, the Chronicle reported.

Lottery rules ban high-tech, third-party devices used to speed up purchases. The commission must approve the setup.

If phone apps and computer purchases are not allowed under lottery law, how could the lottery sell almost $26 million in tickets in only three days before the April 2023 drawing?

Related:Texas Lottery crashes through a barrier: The first scratch-off in U.S. for $100

The answer is couriers. Defenders of high-tech sales say the couriers are like DoorDash, but delivering tickets rather than food. They take the order, buy the product and deliver it.

Couriers take ticket orders from customers using an app on their phones or computers. Couriers claim they send a staffer to purchase tickets from licensed brick-and-mortar lottery retailers. A scanned image of the ticket is sent to the player.

They can move massive numbers of tickets electronically to licensed lottery stores.

Strangely, lottery officials say they can’t regulate couriers because theirs is a private business arrangement outside of the lottery’s jurisdiction.

Dawn Nettles of Garland, who runs the Texas Lotto Report gadfly website, asked in a letter to state lawmakers, “Why is the Texas Lottery defending the apps so fiercely? Answer: Sales were declining, and egos were hurting.”

This story matters to Texans because regular lotto players who hope to hit the big one are essentially snuffed out. The odds against regular players, who bought about $1.5 million in tickets for the drawing, were mathematically thwarted by international buyers from winning.

“Their chances drop considerably when wealthy, international players use modern tech to buy up almost all of the tickets, as what happened here,” Nettles wrote.

Sure, everyone has the same chance of winning the jackpot. But what happened here, Nettles told me, is that Texas players built the jackpot, and then outsiders came in and won the money by buying almost all combinations to almost guarantee a win.

This is more than about the questionable use of high-tech tools to buy tens of millions of dollars of game tickets at warp speed.

This seems like the definition of state-authorized greed.



Short version: International syndicate figured out that once Lotto Texas (and other lotteries around the world) jackpots get over a certain amount, they can just about guarantee a profit by buying up all the possible number combinations so they effectively "cover the board". They did this in Texas using what is called a lotto courier company who offer sales online. To stay within the confines of Texas Lotto rules they actually have to have the tickets printed even if they are bought online so somewhere there is an office setup with officially licensed/approved Texas Lotto machines/printers and they have to crank out all those tickets before the drawing deadline. That was allegedly the hardest part of this whole scheme was actually getting all the tickets printed. 

And now of course our political hero's see that they look bad because someone smarter than them gamed the system and they gotta put a stop to that...

Hot Dog Man GIF 

So basically they don't want someone smarter then them horning in on their scam. Just like the Mafia...

Posted

Yeah....I grab a few Lotto tickets from time to time, because 1) I'm not much of a gambler (seriously, I don't get any thrill out of it), but 2) hey, a chance to pocket $20 million+ is worth $5 every now and then.  It's throw-away money on the chance to at least have the conversation of "what would we do if we won?"

I won't be doing that again/anymore.  It's apparent that the rigging that we know of is just the tip of the iceberg.  

Quote

This week, the Texas Lottery Commission adopted rules to ban couriers after a ticket that won over $83 million was sold at a store in Austin through a courier. The store and courier are both owned by sports betting company DraftKings.

State Sen. Bob Hall (R-Edgewood), the bill's author, believes it will help address what he calls "corruption within the state lottery."

"SB 28 will not restore integrity to the Texas lottery. I don't even know if that's possible," Hall said. "But it will reiterate the responsibility we have given the commission to ensure lottery couriers and their licensed retail outlets are no longer able to operate in the state in language even they should be able to understand."

“The Texas Lottery cannot continue unless the people of Texas have faith that the game is not rigged in advance or that it is not being used as a criminal enterprise to launder massive amounts of money," Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said in a statement Thursday. “Today, the Senate made it clear that the first step in restoring public trust in the commission, if even possible, is to ban lottery couriers. The decision on whether the lottery will continue will be made in the coming days and weeks of the legislative session.”

Yeah, it's not possible to restore the integrity.  There is no reason to have any faith that regular players actually have a shot at winning.  At this point, if they dissolved the Texas Lottery, it would be the right decision.

Of course, I have complete faith that Dan Patrick's threat was intended to coax some big donors who have lots to gain by continuing the rigged system into writing old Dan some big fat checks.  The fat will get fatter, at the expense of the people.  That is the guarantee.

  • Hook 'Em 2

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