A two-month lawsuit against the Texas Lottery Commission (TLC) has been settled in court for $46m.
Kristen Moriarty, a Texas resident, filed the lawsuit against the TLC back in May after unwillingly being dragged into what became a fierce political battle between the Commission, the Texas government, and lottery couriers in the Lone Star State.
On 17 February 2025, Moriarty purchased a lottery ticket from lottery courier app Jackpocket, which turned out to be the winning $83.5m jackpot purchase.
The controversy came from the fact that the ticket was bought from a DraftKings-owned retailer – DraftKings also being the company that owns Jackpocket.
Coupled with a $95m jackpot buyout incident from 2023 that landed TLC in trouble with Texas legislators, this forced the Commission to withhold Moriarty’s ticket while investigations into the matter ensued.
Moriarty was then inadvertently placed in the crossfire of the TLC and lottery couriers as both sides defended their stance – the Commission moving to make couriers illegal while the couriers claimed that they had been operating in Texas under the patronage of the Commission itself.
After a hiatus that lasted for months, Moriarty has now been compensated with $45.8m for the prolonged blocking of the payout. This is the lump sum payment from the $83.5m ticket, with US lottery winners usually given the option of either a lump sum or yearly payments until the full prize money is paid out.
Court records and a statement by the TLC revealed that the agreement was reached with guidance from Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office, which spearheaded one of the two lottery courier investigations at the time when Moriarty’s payout was withheld.
“I’m sad, stressed, angry that this has become a political thing,” Moriarty told The Texas Tribune in an interview. “I’ve lost faith in our elected officials. And yeah, I really don’t know what else to say that I can say out loud.”
Moriarty’s payout comes as the long-running Texas lottery courier saga reaches its conclusion, with Gov. Gregg Abbott signing off the abolishment of the Texas Lottery Commission, and lottery couriers being officially banned from the state.