Courier’s lawsuit seeks to block Texas Lottery from banning its services

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A lottery courier company is suing the Texas Lottery Commission in an effort to block the agency from placing a ban on their services in less than a week.

Lottery courier Lotto.com filed the lawsuit Thursday against the commission and its new acting director, Sergio Rey. The lawsuit calls the potential courier ban an “about-face” from the agency’s previous stance on couriers, as lottery commission officials had previously told lawmakers they lacked the ability to regulate the services, the company said.

“It is time to reconsider the agency’s politically motivated decisions regarding lottery couriers and restart good faith collaboration between our companies and fresh leadership at the TLC,” said a statement from the Coalition of Texas Lottery Couriers, a group formed in 2025 that represents Lotto.com and other couriers.

Couriers are third-party services that sell lottery tickets online. The services print tickets at licensed retailers they own and send digital scans of purchases to customers. Lotto.com comes in second to the nation’s largest retailer, courier Jackpocket, as the state’s highest-selling lottery retailer.

The lottery commission indicated it would ban the businesses after a heated Senate Finance Committee hearing in February, during which lawmakers voiced concerns about the potential for money-laundering through couriers or bulk purchase of lottery tickets.

Amid the mounting scrutiny, Ryan Mindell, the lottery commission’s executive director, resigned on Monday.

The lawsuit claims the commission violated 30-day rule-change notice requirements when it announced in February it would seek to ban couriers and confiscated dozens of lottery terminals from couriers that same day. It also claims that because the lottery commission had previously indicated multiple times to lawmakers that the agency could not regulate the services, the ban is invalid.

The 57-page lawsuit also cites communications between Lotto.com and the lottery commission as an indicator that agency officials were aware of Lotto.com’s operation and communicated with them repeatedly.

Lawmakers’ money-laundering concerns and others, such as illegal sales to minors and out-of-state players, have drawn couriers and the lottery further into lawmakers’ scrutiny. The commission is now under two separate state investigations by the attorney general’s office and the Texas Rangers, a division of the Department of Public Safety. Lt. Gov Dan Patrick also has listed banning couriers as one of his top legislative priorities, and a bill criminalizing the services passed through the state Senate unanimously in February.

Senate Bill 28, authored by Sen. Bob Hall, R-Edgewood, has yet to be heard in the House. The lottery commission will vote on their courier ban on April 29 if the judge does not file an injunction before the meeting.

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