Lottery ticket reseller Lotto.com has sued the Texas Lottery Commission over recently contemplated rule changes that ban the online sale of lottery tickets.
The online lottery company is also chapped about investigations into its operations and state limits on the number of machines allotted to retailers, which was capped at five in early February.
The suit, filed in Travis County, seeks declaratory and injunctive relief, alleging that the Commission’s recent crackdown on online lottery resellers is arbitrary, unlawful, and a reversal of years of official guidance and cooperation.
Of course, that posture presupposes that the lottery was previously operating within its authority.
Unfortunately for Lotto.com, also known as LTC, the rules changed to its benefit were altered to Texans’ detriment and were non-compliant with legislative intent.
The company maintains it operated within state rules and regulations.
Lotto.com, like other online lottery ticket sellers, calls itself a courier. That’s a misnomer that confuses some people about operations and serves as a cover for circumventing state law.
The lawsuit confirms what has been publicly stated: lottery ticket resellers were enticed to come to Texas and set up shop, even though rules were written to exclude them, and state law does not allow their operations.
Despite the clear intention for Texas lottery tickets to be sold in-person to the end buyer with cash in a retail store, Texas became the Wild West of lottery play under the leadership of former executive directors Gary Grief and Ryan Mindell and the lottery’s current general counsel, Bob Baird.
For instance, in 2023, “Texas became the first state for the Lotto.com digital scratch product.” Yes, “scratch” tickets (featuring the nonsensically labeled “digital latex”) have been sold online in Texas for two years.
And, according to the suit, Lotto.com went live using QR codes to print tickets in Texas in April 2022, making this “LTC’s first use of QR codes for ticket order fulfillment in any state.”
