Three years ago, an international gambling ring, aided by online lottery ticket resellers and the Texas Lottery Commission, rigged a $95 million jackpot. The scandal entered mainstream consciousness in the early days of the 2025 legislative session and resulted in the end of the Texas Lottery Commission.
Fast forward to more than a year later, and no justice has been meted out. According to multiple sources, investigators have failed to follow up on low-hanging leads.
Recent reporting out of Australia suggests that the man who claims to have quarterbacked the bulk purchase of tickets and the former head of the Texas Lottery Commission have not been questioned about their roles in the scheme.
Dawn Nettles, a longtime lottery watchdog and publisher of Texas Lottery Report, called the inaction shameful and directly named Gov. Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton in her criticism of the stalled investigation.
In January 2025, Abbott ordered the Texas Rangers to investigate, and Paxton announced his own probe after public outrage over the $95 million win. To date, state authorities have not announced criminal charges or enforcement actions directly tied to the scheme.
State Sen. Paul Bettencourt (R–Houston) famously called the purchasing behavior a “clear indication of money laundering.” Executives linked to one of the key players in the purchasing, Lottery.com, have been accused, in legal filings and SEC actions, of defrauding a church in California, Lottery.com itself, and a businesswoman in Florida. These funds have been cited as a potential source of funding.
While clear prosecutorial action in Texas is absent, civil litigation in Travis County remains ongoing. A lawsuit by Lotto Texas winner Jerry Reed alleges that the jackpot award violated state law. In his suit, Reed is claiming that he is the rightful winner of the jackpot.
A civil case in California and judicial proceedings emerging in Michigan are expected to surface overlapping banking, corporate, and communications records involving some of the same actors and structures at issue in the coming months, before the 2027 legislative session.
Those out‑of‑state records could expose that, despite years of public concern and extensive reporting, no meaningful action has been taken by Texas law enforcement against the architects and beneficiaries of the $95 million jackpot.
Conservative activists, including the fiscal watchdog, Texans for Fiscal Responsibility, are calling for an end to the Texas Lottery.
