Gary Grief, the former executive director of the Texas Lottery Commission, was indicted in Travis County last month on a first-degree felony charge of abuse of official capacity involving more than $300,000 stemming from a rigged $95 million jackpot.
Then, days later, the indictment was dismissed “at the prosecutorial discretion” of assistant district attorney Rob Drummond, according to court records obtained by Texas Scorecard. As of publication, the Travis County District Attorney’s office had not responded to a request for comment on the dismissal.
The indictment was secured based on information discovered during a year-long investigation by the Texas Rangers and came just a month after reporting highlighted the investigation’s length.
Grief’s tenure at the Texas Lottery Commission was controversial, in part because he authorized the operation of lottery ticket resellers in the state. These third-party companies purchased tickets on behalf of customers, allowing for the online sale of Texas lottery tickets, a move that was not approved by lawmakers. Notably, during the 2023 legislative session, Grief misled members of the Senate about resellers operating openly in Texas.
The practice was outlawed during the 2025 legislative session after intense scrutiny following revelations that couriers facilitated bulk purchases, leading to a $95 million Lotto Texas jackpot win in April 2023 that was reportedly rigged by an international gambling syndicate.
Early in the 2025 legislative session, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick called the April 2023 drawing “the biggest theft from the people of Texas in the history of Texas,” and State Sen. Carol Alvarado (D–Houston) asked why “charges or something criminal” hadn’t already been brought against Grief for his involvement.
Grief resigned from his position before the session and was reportedly difficult to locate, with Lt. Gov. Patrick and Sen. Charles Schwertner publicly suggesting that authorities had been unable to find him.
The swift dismissal of Grief’s indictment follows a long-established pattern in Texas politics. For more than three decades, the Travis County District Attorney’s Public Integrity Unit has had unique jurisdiction to prosecute officials for alleged corruption and ethics violations, a power created in the early 1990s along with the lottery and the Texas Ethics Commission.
This setup has long been criticized by Republicans who argue it creates a conflict of interest, allowing politically motivated prosecutions of conservative officials. The Public Integrity Unit’s most prominent case was the 2014 indictment of then-Governor Rick Perry for abuse of official capacity and coercion after he vetoed funding for the unit itself following controversies involving the Travis County DA. Those charges were ultimately dismissed.
The rapid dismissal of Grief’s indictment raises new questions about prosecutorial discretion and accountability for state officials accused of serious wrongdoing.
According to recent polling from the University of Texas at Austin, political corruption is one of the top issues for Texas voters.
