Editorial & Opinions by Dawn Nettles

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Kudo's To Our Elected Officials For
Taking Action To Protect Lottery Players ...

At this time, I am not going to cover this topic fully. I
have my reasons ... I have to wait it out so to speak. But
I do want to share two very important tidbits with you.

First, I'm really pleased to say that many of our
elected officials have taken serious steps to halt
the TLC from allowing new technology to cater to
the rich. By this I mean, a single player or even
a small group should not be able to buy every
combination in a game so they can "win" the
jackpot. In other words, let Texans build it,
and then they come in and steal it.

Anyway, a bill passed the Senate but was
either never heard or failed to pass the House
that forbid purchasing lottery tickets via an
app on a phone or on a computer. In my opinion,
this bill wasn't necessary because it's always been
known that internet and phone sales were prohibited.

So Senator Bob Hall added Sec 17.36 to
a Rider in HB 1 - known as the Budget.
Sec 17.36 is one sentence that states the
TLC SHALL not allow ordering, sales
or purchase of lottery tickets via phones.
(Paraphrasing)

Watch Senator Hall explain this issue on
May 26 - Part 1 - during the Senate hearing.
Click here and fast forward to 3:03:08

Or, if you want, Senator Hall requested
that his comments be reduced to writing for
the Journal. His lottery comment starts
on page 3 of this 4 page pdf. Click here.
(This pdf is an excerpt from the Journal)

When Gov Abbott signed HB 1, he
did NOT Veto Sec 17.36 but he did
comment on it ... in fact, he said it was
unconstitutional. As you can see on
page 3, 3rd paragraph, he vetoed some
items, but not this one. It remains in
HB 1 while other items were stricken.

A birdie told me that the Governor was
sending a message to the Commissioners
and to Mr. Grief. They fully expect the TLC
to return to the original "intent" of the lottery
and to run it accordingly.

Interesting ... The TLC Commission Meeting
Wednesday, 6/21/23, during the TLC
Commission meeting, the Commissioners
were brought up to date with the 2023 "Session
News," but not one person asked any questions
pertaining to the apps, the "brick and mortar"
retailers or the bought $95 million jackpot.
They were told about Sec 17.36 and the
Governor's comment but only said "we'll see."

Now I must tell you that unlike other meetings,
when the meeting started, they immediately went into
Executive Session so I'd bet they did their "discussions"
then - behind closed doors! <grin>

As for item #2 .... the Commissioners were also
told that the TLC would be undergoing a Sunset Review
now which was really BAD news to them. The TLC's
next Sunset review was originally set for 2030.

For those of you who are not familiar with this,
the Sunset Commission is the State Agency
who evaluates agencies and makes
recommendations to the Legislature for
changes or new laws that are needed.

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The TLC/State Should Not Honor
The 4/22/23 Winning Jackpot Ticket

Because the Texas Lottery KNEW in real time that
the over estimated $95 million dollar jackpot was being
bought, they should have halted "APP" sales IMMEDIATELY.

And they could have EASILY taken this action. All they had
to do was cancel sales and instruct the retailers (APPS) to refund
all monies to the purchaser. And this should have been done on
Thursday but instead, the TLC chose to increase the jackpot knowing
it was being bought. Much like they continued selling deceptive
Fun 5 scratch tickets.

This can still be done. But I think at this point that the purchaser
should be required to submit his tickets for a full refund. As
it is, he's already collected prize money for his Match 3
of 6 and Match 4 of 6 tickets. (Prize amounts shown below)

The TLC should then take the monies allocated for the
6 of 6 winner and add it to the current jackpot.
(The jackpot prize has not been paid yet.)

Now having suggested this, I realize there's been two jackpot
wins since then. Those winners may argue that the monies should
be theirs. And maybe it should. Either way, the money should NOT
be paid to the person(s) that bought the $95M jackpot on 4/22/23.

If the person(s) who did buy the jackpot wishes to sue
over this, then they CAN sue the retailers and the APP.
The APP's knew internet sales was prohibited ... it is
after all, on the TLC webite and has been for many
years. Read 9th question - click here

While the Texas Lottery enjoys Sovereign Immunity, it is
possible that the legislature would allow the TLC to be
sued by the retailers and APP's. The TLC certainly
shares in the blame.

All players in Texas are angry and they have
every right. Because the APPS advertise
heavily that they make sure players don't over
spend, well, that point has been disproven. I
suspect players could file a class action lawsuit.

Personally, I have not purchased a Lotto Texas,
Mega Millions or Powerball ticket since April 22, 2023.
It's sad because I don't even have a chance to win.
But I'm not game for making the rich wealthier!

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Just for fun, let me show what buying a
Lotto Texas jackpot would pay a player ....

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The 4/22/23 $95M Jackpot Was "Bought"
And the winner MAY get to cash in lots of low tier prizes ...

Not only did someone win the $95M jackpot (that hasn't been
claimed yet), but they also scored big with low tier winning
tickets ... the match 5, match 4 and match 3 wins.
Here's a breakdown of the low tier prizes - the match 4
and match 3 are below the chart.

See this TX Lottery spread sheet showing
where the 311 match 5 winning tickets
were sold. Very interesting.

The Match 4 category - the number of tickets sold
via the apps - I would est that 16,925 out of the 18,426
winning tickets were included in the 25.8 million
tickets bought by the one purchaser. At $50 each,
this would have paid $846,250 to the person
or entity that "bought" the jackpot.

The Match 3 category - there was 377,360 tickets
that matched 3 numbers. This is an unprecedented number
of winning tickets. I am going to guesstimate that the
$95 million winner had 344,362 tickets that
matched 3 numbers meaning he won
another $1,033,086.

For convenience, the APP retailers cashed in
the Match 4 ($50) and the match 3 tickets ($3).
They simply deposited the money into his
App account immediately following the drawing.
(Apps automatically cash in all
winning tickets under $599)

Bottom Line ...
The person who bought all 25.8 combinations
for the 4/22/23 drawing should have won:

Match 6: $57,804,374
Match 5: $580,320
Match 4: $846,250
Match 3: $1,033,086
Total Won: $60,264,030

An Open Records Request to Obtain Copies of The Claims
Obtaining copies of claims & winning tickets simply
requires an Open Records request. I've made multiple
requests to obtain copies of the 5 of 6 winning
tickets but the TLC is EXTREMELY slow
in providing documents responsive.
Imagine that!

FYI - To illustrate, as of 6/25/23, I've only received
18 claim forms for the 4/22/23 drawing and only
15 claim forms for the 4/15/23 drawing. This is for
those tickets that matched 5 of 6 numbers ONLY.
(This is out of 311 and 71 winning tickets respectively)

Can you imagine legitimate lottery players not collecting
their prizes sooner than this? It's been 2 months now.
Hmmm ....

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The 1st Attempt To Buy A Lotto TX Jackpot
Was the April 15, 2023 - $68.75 Million - drawing

Editorial & Opinions by Dawn Nettles

It is my educated opinion, that a week prior to the
"bought" $95 million jackpot, that the same purchaser
wheeled a set of numbers to the tune of roughly $5 million.

I concluded this because draw sales for the 4/15/23 draw
was $7.3 million which was roughly $5 M too much.
And, $5+ million came in from TWO known
"App" retailers. I suppose Director Grief
would call this a "coincidence." <grin>

What I really want to know is ... did the
purchaser use AI (Artificial Intelligence) to
select the numbers to wheel and play? <grin>

Sales ... April 15th drawing ... top 5 selling retailers.

Just so you know, total draw sales for the 4/15/23
Lotto Texas drawing was $7,386,385.

It is my belief that one person or entity bought 5 million plus
wheeled combinations from Lottery Now and Luck Zone.
When he lost that night (4/22/23), I think he decided to
organize to buy all combinations to get his $5 million back!

My guess is the winnings on the low tier prizes
from the 4/15/23 draw probably netted him
an est $577,520 - but - that's a long ways
from his spending $5 million for the drawing!

There were 71 five of six winning tickets that paid
$2,320 each. This means he has to take his
tickets to a claim center to collect.

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Part 5 - To Come
I will be posting one more story.
I have not covered several things I intended
to share with ya'll and I feel they are important.
I'll let you know when later.