Mystery winner of whopping $83.5M lottery may never see her money — due to a sudden technicality
A Texas woman with a winning $83.5 million lottery ticket may never get her mega payout because officials are investigating the app she used.
The woman, who has not been publicly identified, bought $20 worth of Texas Lotto tickets for the Feb. 17 drawing on the app Jackpocket — a lottery courier service state lawmakers are now trying to ban.
“I’m being treated as the bad guy,” the woman
The app and other similar courier services — which buy lottery tickets on people’s behalf for a service fee — are facing intense backlash from Texas lawmakers, many of whom feel they are operating illegally under current state law.
The Texas Senate passed a bill in February that would ban courier services, and the measure is now headed to the Texas House.
Jackpocket has since stopped operating in Texas – but didn’t do so until several weeks after the woman’s winning ticket was bought.
The Texas Lottery Commission (TLC) said in a statement that lottery courier services are illegal in Texas only after the woman’s win.
However, Jackpocket said its app has been operating in compliance with the TLC since 2019.
The back-and-forth prompted Gov. Greg Abbott to order Texas Rangers to investigate the woman’s win. They are also investigating the 2023 win of a $95 million jackpot that was won by a group that purchased over $25 million worth of tickets, ensuring they bought almost every combination of numbers.
The mystery female winner said that her case is very different, given that she fairly paid $20 to play rather than the millions spent by the 2023 group.
“Sometimes there are reasons to investigate things, but I don’t think mine is one of them,” the woman said.
Her attorney, Randy Howry, said she is the rightful winner of the Feb. 17 drawing and deserves to receive her prize.
“We played by all the rules, and we’re still playing by all the rules and we expect that my client should be paid,” Howry said.
The woman, who presented her winning ticket to the TLC on March 18, has not received her earnings — even though the commission typically pays out the winnings within three days.
The TLC said it would not decide on paying out until the investigation is complete.
“How unfair would it be if she’s not paid her winnings?” the woman’s lawyer said. “Is that going to give confidence to those other people out there who want to play the Texas lottery?”
Jackpocket is available only in 19 states across the country – including New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Montana, Maine, Ohio and Idaho.
The app allows customers to order tickets through their phone, which dispatches a courier who goes to a store and buys the ticket. The courier then sends the customer a scan of their tickets and holds onto them until the drawing.
Since its founding in 2013, Jackpocket has sold millions of dollars worth of lottery tickets – including selling more than 10% of the tickets across five states during the April 2024 billion-dollar Powerball drawing, according to the company.
During the six years it operated in Texas, more than $550 million worth of lottery tickets were bought there using Jackpocket, Jackpocket owner Draftkings in February.
In January, an Arizona woman won $112 million using Jackpocket, while others have racked up millions in prizes across the country.
Additional reporting by Alex Oliveira
