An embattled Texas-based online lottery company has announced a renewed push to sell lottery tickets internationally. Filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission suggest the tickets are for Texas games.
Lottery.com, which has struggled with solvency issues since shortly after going public in 2021, announced this week that it intends to sell lottery tickets in Europe and Africa.
The company, void in Delaware for owing back taxes according to the Delaware Department of State, has faced multiple delisting threats from NASDAQ and is working to raise capital. In October 2024, it filed an S-1, which is meant to provide transparency and protect investors from fraud by providing them with detailed, accurate information.
Despite lacking a Texas retail license (a fact its most recent S-1 erroneously represents), Lottery.com asserts that it conducts business-to-business lottery ticket sales internationally. The filing states, “We currently supply certain in-state and multi-state draw lottery games issued by the Texas State Lottery to partners using our B2B API in various countries worldwide.”
When asked if Lottery.com was printing tickets from an alias, the Texas Lottery responded that it wasn’t. However, according to internal company emails, the Fort Worth-based company has previously sold Texas Lottery tickets abroad without a retailer license.
Since Lottery.com cannot print tickets, the firm may, as it has previously, turn to retailer relationships. ALTX Management, a lottery retailer linked to Lottery.com, is not currently tapped to provide this service in the Euro-African expansion, but the possibility that it will cannot be ruled out.
A 2023 email from Greg Potts, the COO of Lottery.com included in legal filings out of Florida, stated that international sales—facilitated by ALTX Management—were the company’s only source of revenue.
In the same email, Potts told CEO Matt McGahan that the company had significant operational issues and explained how Lottery.com’s partner in the Dominican Republic had been informed that the company could no longer supply tickets after being locked out of its office due to non-payment of rent.
The Potts email was sent just two months after the company reportedly printed millions of lottery tickets from its office as part of a successful enterprise to rig a $95 million jackpot.
Two days after receiving Potts’ email, McGahan forwarded it to Ron Farrah, a convicted drug dealer who was serving a life sentence before being pardoned by Barack Obama in 2016.
This isn’t the first time Lottery.com’s international selling has made headlines.
In 2023, the company announced plans to sell Texas lottery tickets in the Dominican Republic, a move that, according to reporting at the time, “surprised” the Texas Lottery Commission. It has recently emerged that the commission was not caught off guard by these developments.
In fact, as far back as 2019, then-Executive Director of the Texas Lottery Commission Gary Grief had informed Lottery.com executive Tony DiMateo that the commission intended to comply with multi-state lottery rules, allowing the sale of tickets across state lines and in foreign venues.
At first, this only applied to multi-state games. Then, in 2020, the commission altered its rules to allow Texas lottery tickets to be sold in other states and countries. A representative of Lottery.com later called the sale of these tickets illegal in financial disclosures, an activity that led to the termination of the company’s then-CFO.
The State of Texas was made aware of these illegal sales but took no action.
During the 2023 session, State Sen. Bob Hall (R-Edgewood) said that the proliferation of online lottery ticket sales in Texas was due to the Lottery Commission’s failure to slam the door on the courier companies. The reality is much worse. Gary Grief swung the door wide open, first with Lottery.com, then other courier companies.
In the waning days of the 2023 legislative session, Texas lawmakers attached a rider to the budget instructing the Texas Lottery to stop selling lottery tickets by couriers or lose funding. Gov. Greg Abbott did not line-item veto the rider but called it unconstitutional and said it could be ignored.
The Texas Lottery Commission has obliged.
Regarding Lottery.com’s announcement that it would relaunch lottery operations targeting Europe and Africa, Greg Potts said the company would not release any further information, including strategic partners or whether tickets would be sold for more than face value.
The Texas Lottery will be subject to sunset review during the 2025 legislative session. During this process, lawmakers evaluate agency operations and consider needed improvements, potential reassignments, and even abolition.
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