Legislators need to reauthorize the Lottery Commission by Aug. 31, as funding for the agency isn’t part of the Texas budget.

By Gromer Jeffers Jr.

political writer

May 5, 2025

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Updated 6:00 a.m. CDT

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6 min. read

Edith Patlan purchased tickets at a Texas Lottery terminal at Fuel City in Dallas on Feb....

Edith Patlan purchased tickets at a Texas Lottery terminal at Fuel City in Dallas on Feb. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/LM Otero)(LM Otero / AP)

Some legislators are pushing to eliminate the Texas Lottery amid questions about its management and multiple criminal investigations.

What started as concerns over whether lottery officials violated Texas law by allowing couriers to take online ticket orders has ballooned into the Texas Rangers and Attorney General Ken Paxton investigating potential crimes related to two multimillion dollar jackpots.

Why This Story Matters

The Texas Lottery is facing multiple investigations as legislators consider whether to renew it this year, with some saying there is a chance the state will end it. If the lottery goes away, the Legislature would need to replace billions of dollars in funding for public schools that come from lottery revenues.

The controversy has put the lottery in limbo. With weeks left in the legislative session, lawmakers haven’t budgeted funds for the agency that operates it.

Bills to eliminate the lottery may not be necessary.

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The Lottery Commission is under its 12-year systematic evaluation and will expire Aug. 31 without reauthorization from the Legislature. The Lottery Commission evaluation started last year with the Sunset Advisory Commission, which made recommendations on how lottery oversight could be improved. Lawmakers must approve legislation to extend the lottery or it will expire.

Related:Controversy surrounding Texas Lottery isn’t helping supporters of casinos, sports betting

The death of the Texas Lottery would force the Legislature to look elsewhere for the revenue the lottery provides for public education and veterans. Since 1997, the lottery has provided $34 billion to public schools, including $2 billion in 2024. It has generated $267 million for veterans since 2010.

The lottery’s demise also could cast doubt on whether casino gambling and sports betting will ever become a reality in Texas. If the state can’t run a lottery without scandal, other more complicated forms of gambling could be a nonstarter.

“Government does not need to be in the gambling business,” said state Sen. Bob Hall, R-Edgewood. “It needs to end. The best way to move forward is to just have it go away.”

A customer at Fuel City in Dallas picked up her printed tickets from a Texas Lottery sales...

A customer at Fuel City in Dallas picked up her printed tickets from a Texas Lottery sales terminal in February 2025. (AP Photo/LM Otero)(LM Otero / AP)

Hall said the odds that the lottery goes away are 50-50. His legislation to abolish the lottery could be considered this week in the Senate State Affairs Committee.

“We’re coming at it from multiple directions,” Hall said. “There’s no money in the budget for it, and it’s not in the safety net bill.”

The Lottery Commission is asking the state for $10 million for advertising costs. About 3% of the lottery’s $8.4 billion in sales goes toward administrative costs.

Hall said there are some lawmakers who may have “rubber knees” on the issue. He’s not sure about the mood of the House.

“I have no idea where (Texas Gov. Greg) Abbott stands,” he said.

Abbott, who in February ordered the Texas Rangers to investigate two controversial jackpots, has not indicated whether he wants the lottery to continue.

“The governor expects the Texas Lottery Commission to work within the bounds of the law and to ensure the trust and integrity of the lottery,” said Andrew Mahaleris, a spokesman for Abbott.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a leading critic of the Lottery Commission, has indicated Texas could move forward without a lottery.

“If the lottery continues at all, we’re going to change all of it and fix it,” Patrick said in a nearly five-minute video filmed at a ticket outlet owned by a courier and lottery commission offices.

“For it to continue,” he added, “you as the taxpayer and those who pay the lottery must be assured that every game is honest and you have a fair chance to win. If we cannot guarantee that, then the lottery should not continue.”

Robert Rivera, chairman of the Lottery Commission, did not return a telephone call and text message seeking comment.

Rice University political scientist Mark Jones, who has been following the lottery controversy, said lawmakers are serious about defunding it. But, he added, it’s more likely the Lottery Commission would be subjected to extensive reforms, and not a political death penalty.

“They’ve lost the trust and faith of a large proportion of the elected officials, if not all,” Jones said. “There’s a middle ground option here, which is to reform the existing Lottery Commission to prevent future mishaps … The Texas Lottery is in a very weak position right now, and they pretty much have to take whatever the Legislature gives them in terms of cuts, oversight and authority.”

A string of controversies

In 2023, Hall and a few other lawmakers began to raise questions about the legality of outside agents known as couriers, who assist customers in purchasing lottery tickets.

Courier services take orders online or through an app, buy lottery tickets from a retailer and send a scanned copy to the buyer, holding the ticket until the drawing occurs. Couriers charge a fee to buy and manage the tickets, according to the Lottery Commission.

In this 2025 file photo, a Texas Lottery sales terminal displays jackpot amounts at Fuel...

In this 2025 file photo, a Texas Lottery sales terminal displays jackpot amounts at Fuel City in Dallas. (AP Photo/LM Otero)(LM Otero / AP)

Texas law prohibits lottery tickets from being sold online or via telephone, so critics of the process argue it at least violated the spirit of the law.

In February, the Senate voted 31-0 to ban the use of couriers to facilitate the purchase of lottery tickets amid concerns couriers violated Texas law and possibly aided the sale of lottery tickets to children.

The Senate vote came after former Lottery Commission executive director Ryan Mindell banned couriers, which he had consistently told lawmakers he lacked the authority to do.

Mindell resigned in April, and Lotto.com, a courier, is suing the commission to get the courier ban overturned. Last week, the Lottery Commission ratified Mindell’s courier ban.

“Although the agency repeatedly testified that it had no regulatory authority over couriers, in response to political pressure, the TLC chose to abruptly change course and eliminate businesses, jobs, state revenue and a service millions of Texans use to order lottery tickets,” the Coalition of Texas Lottery Couriers said in a statement about the ban.

The biggest lottery controversy involved two multimillion dollar jackpots that lawmakers and lottery experts say are suspicious.

One jackpot, for $95 million paid in April 2023, went to an overseas entity that bought over 25 million $1 tickets, giving it access to “nearly every possible number combination,” Abbott said when announcing an investigation by Texas Rangers.

A second winning ticket, for $83.5 million paid in February, was purchased from an Austin lottery store that is connected to a courier.

That same month, Paxton launched an investigation into the two “possibly unlawful” winnings that involved the purchase of bulk lottery tickets and the use of third-party courier services. The Texas attorney general’s investigation came after Abbott directed the Texas Rangers to investigate the lottery jackpots.

Patrick, the Senate’s presiding officer, followed by asking the Texas Rangers to expand the investigation to include “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.”

The investigations could bring more controversy to the Lottery Commission.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, shown in the Senate Chamber of the Capitol in Austin in January 2025,...

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, shown in the Senate Chamber of the Capitol in Austin in January 2025, followed Gov. Greg Abbott's call for the investigation of the Texas Lottery Commission by expanding it to include “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.”(Juan Figueroa / Staff Photographer)

“I want to see the lottery killed,” said state Rep. Matt Shaheen, R-Prosper, who called the controversy an embarrassment.

Would lottery revenue be missed?

Jones, the Rice political scientist, said the lottery could survive because of the revenue it provides.

In 2024, the lottery provided $2 billion in public education funding.

“The last thing legislators on a conference committee on the budget would want to have to deal with is how to fill a last-minute, biennial hole that’s caused by Texas Lottery revenue disappearing,” Jones said. “They would be eliminating a recurring source of funding that you can pretty much put on autopilot.”

State Rep. Chris Turner in 2009 authored legislation that allowed the lottery to produce a scratch-ticket game to create revenue used to help veterans. In 2024, veterans assistance programs got $27 million from scratch games.

“Our veterans need and deserve and have earned that funding,” said Turner, a Grand Prairie Democrat. “The Legislature has said it’s a priority to provide those services for our veterans, so it’s very important that we preserve that funding.”

Shaheen, who has a House bill that would abolish the lottery, said lottery revenue is a small portion of education funding, and the money for schools and veterans could be made up in other areas of the budget.

He acknowledged concerns that in future years Texas might not enjoy the budget surpluses and robust revenue, but he said its economy didn’t need the lottery or any other form of gambling.

“We’re flush with cash and the Texas economy, overall, is in good shape,” Shaheen said. “I’d say we definitely have the capacity to replace the revenue that the lottery provides for education and veterans.”

The Lottery Commission’s funding could be restored to the budget when Senate and House members negotiate a final package.

And while agencies often get 12-year extensions after going through a systematic review, lawmakers could opt to extend the lottery a shorter time frame, like two years.

The issue may go down to the wire, as the Legislature’s 140-day session ends June 2.

“The Texas Lottery is in trouble,” Jones said. “You can expect a housecleaning, for sure.”

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5720897&forum_id=2...id.#48907063)