Texas House lawmakers are fielding two competing proposals to ban lottery ticket resellers or legalize and regulate them.
Members of the House Committee on Licensing and Administrative Procedures, chaired by State Rep. Dade Phelan (R-Beaumont), discussed the two proposals late Tuesday.
Lottery ticket resellers, also known as couriers, allow online customers to purchase lottery tickets from brick-and-mortar stores without going to the store themselves. Instead, couriers can buy tickets on their behalf for a premium.
Resellers first began operating in Texas around a decade ago with the apparent support of former Texas Lottery Commission Executive Director Gary Grief, who has disappeared from the public eye since he resigned from the commission.
The introduction of resellers into Texas came despite the Texas Lottery’s governing statutes specifically prohibiting “playing a lottery game by telephone” since the 1990s.
Senate Bill 28, filed by State Sen. Bob Hall (R-Edgewood), would clarify and formalize how the legislature first intended the lottery to operate, banning the practice of ticket resellers.
The measure passed unanimously on the Senate floor in late February, just three days after senators on the State Affairs Committee laid into Texas Lottery commissioners for switching their official position on resellers.
While documents show Grief facilitated reseller activity in Texas, the commissioners’ official position on resellers before a Senate Finance Committee hearing in mid-February had been that they lacked the authority to stop the industry.
Since the Senate committee hearings, lottery commissioners approved a new rule to revoke the licenses of retailers who work with lottery ticket resellers. The executive director who succeeded Grief, Ryan Mindell, has also resigned.
State Rep. Matt Shaheen (R-Plano) is carrying Hall’s measure in the House and was responsible for introducing it to committee members this week.
“The rise of online lottery sales via couriers has led to some of the largest exploitations of Texas residents,” said Shaheen.
Shaheen highlighted two suspicious jackpot wins connected to ticket resellers: a $95 million win in 2023 and an $83 million win in February 2025.
“Lottery ticket sales were always meant to be in person, as current statute prohibits a person from ‘playing a lottery game by telephone,’ and SB 28 adds the words, ‘or through an internet application or mobile internet application,’” added Shaheen.
Rob Porter, chief legal officer for the reseller service Lotto.com, testified against SB 28.
“We think the better path is not to ban couriers under Senate Bill 28, but to enact and enforce the strongest courier regulations in the country. That’s the position we advocate for today,” said Porter.
Rob Kohler, a consultant for the Texas Baptists Christian Life Commission, called lottery ticket resellers “only couriers in name” when testifying in favor of SB 28.
“Voters in 1991 could have never contemplated the selling of electronic facsimiles of Texas Lottery tickets over mobile phones, on computers, and via the internet,” said Kohler. “The Texas Lottery executive director during this period did not have the authority to authorize electronic facsimiles of Texas Lottery tickets.”
SB 28 was left pending in committee.
While Hall’s proposal would ban resellers, committee members on Tuesday fielded another proposal by State Rep. John Bucy III (D-Austin) that would regulate them.
House Bill 3201 would allow the director of the Texas Lottery Commission to issue licenses for individual ticket resellers, provided they pass certain legal background checks and ethical scrutiny.
“Specifically, it calls for criminal history and licensure eligibility, investigations for courier service applicants, authorizes information sharing with DPS [the Texas Department of Public Safety] and the FBI and other relevant agencies,” said Bucy.
In addition, the measure regulates advertising and marketing of ticket resellers, requires annual compliance and financial audits and reporting, and includes some anti-money laundering provisions.
A committee substitute to HB 3201 would require licensing fees for approved reseller services operating in Texas to go toward public schools, mandate resellers partner with a Texas-based retailer, and increase security measures.
Paul Prezioso, vice president of legal, compliance, and regulatory affairs for Jackpot.com, testified in favor of HB 3201. He argued that resellers like Jackpot already operate legally across the country.
“With HB 3201, the strict regulatory requirements that we adhere to in those states would be equally applied to courier operations in the State of Texas,” said Prezioso.
Other representatives from lottery ticket reseller services, including Porter and Jackpocket Senior Vice President of External Affairs Andrew Fries, also testified in support of Bucy’s proposal.
Kohler testified against the measure, but applauded lottery ticket resellers for trying to address the issue legislatively instead of going to commissioners like they had done before.
HB 3201 was left pending in committee.
While lawmakers deliberate how to handle resellers, Hall is pushing to abolish the Texas Lottery, citing broken trust between the legislature and commissioners after a slate of high-profile scandals.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has also warned that the Texas Lottery is on “life support.” If it were to continue, he told local news, it would likely be turned over to another state agency.
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