This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at www.texastribune.org. The Texas Tribune is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans – and engages with them – about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
Texas Lottery to pay winner of $83.5M jackpot after withholding prize for months
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AUSTIN (The Texas Tribune) -- The Texas Lottery Commission will pay nearly $46 million to a woman who was denied her winnings for months amid investigations and controversies that tied up her payout.
An agreement between the lottery commission and Kristen Moriarty was filed on Thursday, according to court records. In a statement, the lottery commission said the settlement was reached with guidance from Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office, and the Houston-area resident will receive $45.8 million before taxes in a single lump that is currently being processed.
The payout comes more than five months after Moriarty purchased her winning Lotto Texas ticket — worth $83.5 million — on Feb. 17 through Jackpocket, an online service known as a lottery courier that sells lottery tickets online. The agency refused to pay Moriarty for the win, citing two investigations into courier operations in Texas by the Department of Public Safety and Paxton’s office.
Moriarty sued the commission in May for the money, and said she felt trapped in between a legal battle in which she had no part.
“I'm sad, stressed, angry that this has become a political thing,” Moriarty said in a June interview with The Texas Tribune. “I've lost faith in our elected officials. And yeah, I really don't know what else to say that I can say out loud.”
Couriers, which operate by receiving orders from customers and scanning copies of physical tickets at a retail store the company owns to send to the purchaser, were recently criminalized by the Texas Legislature after receiving scrutiny over whether their operations were legal under state law.
Skepticism on the legality of couriers was already high among state lawmakers due to a jackpot that was won in 2023. In that instance, a single group, with the help of a courier company, bought 99% of the 26 million possible tickets in a single drawing to win a $95 million jackpot. In addition to criminalizing couriers, the Legislature also banned purchasing more than 100 tickets in a single purchase.
After Moriarty won her prize through a courier, lawmakers including Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick became even more suspicious of the services, prompting the investigations.
The attorney general’s office did not respond to a request for comment on the settlement or their investigation.
The payout is set to be among the last to be handled by the lottery commission, which is scheduled to be abolished on Sept. 1. Texas’ Department of Licensing and Regulation will instead run the state’s lottery and charitable bingo operations, although it is currently unclear how similar the two agencies’ operation will be. The settlement also ends one of the last controversies that had enveloped the doomed agency since January, which resulted in the investigations, the commission’s abolition and multiple resignations.