Lawmakers take aim at third-party ticket management businesses
By Kate Northrop
Lawmakers are discussing a bill that would prohibit the sale of lottery tickets online in Texas, effectively banning online lottery courier services.
A bill that would prohibit the sale of Texas Lottery tickets online has passed in the Senate and threatens the operation of ticket courier services in the state.
On Saturday, one ticket won the $95 million Lotto Texas jackpot, which stood as the largest lottery prize in the U.S. at the time of the drawing. That ticket was sold at Hooked on MT in Colleyville, but the retailer who sold the winning ticket was listed as Lottery Now.
Lottery Now holds a retailer license issued by the Texas Lottery Commission but operates an online lottery ticket butler service called Mido Lotto, which allows players to buy tickets right from their phone. The courier service purchases and stores physical tickets on behalf of the player, who retains ownership of the tickets they buy through the app.
While Lottery Now is technically a licensed retailer, courier services have no business relationship with the Texas Lottery and are not licensed retailers, Lottery Director of Media Relations Lauren Callahan told Lottery Post. These retailers may offer a ticket management service to their customers to provide them with lottery tickets purchased in Texas.
"The relationships that these companies maintain to obtain Texas Lottery tickets are strictly with individual retailers in Texas with whom they have their own working arrangements," Callahan said.
Senator Bob Hall's bill, Senate Bil 1820, seeks to ban courier services and prohibit such companies from selling tickets online, arguing that lottery tickets should be sold directly to players in a face-to-face transaction.
The bill moved on to the House after passing in the Senate unanimously on April 12. On April 18, it was referred to the Licensing & Administrative Procedures Committee, which regulates gaming industries in the state and matters pertaining to the Texas Lottery Commission.
The winner of the $95 million Lotto Texas jackpot has not come forward to claim their cash prize of $57.8 million before taxes and has 180 days from the draw date to make the claim.
Unbelievable! Playing online allows those of us that work 9-5 to play the 4 draws a day that we aren't able to bc we work. The Courier service aka online game play is the only way real lottery players can participate. Make it easier for us to play online and we won't need the websites such as Jackpocket. There are other things to worry about an to expedite that are more pressing than online betting in Texas.
It not only hurts the working class but also handicapped that don't have the means to get to a retailer. This is only one of the reasons people do online betting outside of the lottery.
Thats not fair! Why would the lawmakers do that!!!!
What about TheLotter? Will they still offer sales for Texas lottery tickets? Todd?
"arguing that lottery tickets should be sold directly to players in a face-to-face transaction"
Don't they know several states offered Online sales for years?
And regardless of who buys the tickets, the Texas Lottery gets their cut.
The bill moved on to the House after passing in the Senate unanimously on April 12. On April 18, it was referred to the Licensing & Administrative Procedures Committee, which regulates gaming industries in the state and matters pertaining to the Texas Lottery Commission.
Looks like the Legislature was working on this before the big jackpot win.
Personally I don't have an opinion one way or the other on this. I've always had my favorite stores to buy my tix so it doesn't really affect me, but I can see why some would like to buy tix online.
I would assume that if the legislation were to pass and get signed into law that every lottery company, including TheLotter, would be prohibited from doing business in the state. Hopefully that does not happen, for Texans sake.
Who knows, maybe someone will find a way to do it?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lottery_Office
It seems like this bill might not target online betting as a whole. It said third-party businesses. You could probably still use the official TX lottery app to play online
As far as I know, the Texas Lottery does not offer the ability to play online. The only way to do so is through these third party butler service companies, which is what some in the legislature are discussing outlawing. So if this were to go through, Texans would lose all ability to play online. i.e., not good for Texans.
More Texans need to get out and vote.
I know some state
lotteries allow you to play on their website. TX do not and maybe they should start
Texas Lottery should be selling tickets online to increase revenues. European lotteries sell tickets through the internet.
Yeah, I was trying to figure out their logic too. Someone should tell Bob Hall there is no "face-to-face transaction" when players buy their tickets from a Kiosk machine either. Or will prohibiting Kiosk sales be his next bill?