Lottery winner demands court intervention for withheld prize payment
By Kate Northrop
The unidentified winner of the $83.5 million Lotto Texas jackpot, whose prize is being withheld amid ongoing state investigations, is suing the Texas Lottery more than three months after being denied a payout.
The woman who purchased the sole jackpot-winning ticket for an $83.5 million Lotto Texas jackpot in February made good on her promise to pursue legal action against the Texas Lottery after the Texas Lottery validated her winning ticket but provided no indication of if or when she'll be paid.
Court documents filed on May 19 refer to "Jane Doe" as the "legitimate and undisputed winner of a $83,500,000.00 Texas Lottery jackpot." The suit names Texas Lottery Commission (TLC) Acting Deputy Executive Director Sergio Rey as the primary defendant, who replaced former Executive Director Ryan Mindell following his resignation in April.
The lawsuit comes after multiple warnings from the winner and her lawyer, Randy Howry, that they would be taking legal action "against any responsible parties" if and when the appropriate timing presents itself, Howry told Lottery Post in March.
The TLC did confirm the validity of the jackpot-winning ticket, but the agency was withholding the payout since the $83.5 million jackpot was and currently is under the scrutiny of state investigations. They did not provide a timeline as to when the investigation would wrap up, nor could they confirm whether the winner would even receive the prize depending on the findings of the external state investigation.
"In Texas, a deal is a deal, unless you are the Texas Lottery," the lawsuit contends. "...if you win, you should get paid. When you win, the Lottery should pay you - not stall, not waffle, not hem, not haw, not try and change the rules and not try to back out of the deal. Lotteries with integrity pay the winners. Responsible lotteries pay the winners. Anything short of that destroys the integrity of the lottery and shatters the confidence of those who play it. It shouldn't take a lawsuit to get paid when you win the lottery."
Additionally, the lawsuit requests a temporary injunction against Rey, citing concern that the funds intended for her prize payout are at risk of being reallocated to fund prize payments for other winners, thereby irreparably diminishing and wasting the winnings she is due.
"If Mr. Rey is not restrained and enjoined from disbursing or diminishing the Plaintiff's jackpot prize winnings, Plaintiff will suffer damages that will be incapable of being measured by any certain pecuniary standard before notice is given and a hearing is held on Plaintiff's Application for Temporary Injunction," the lawsuit argues. "To the extent that Plaintiff could be adequately compensated (which she disputes) it would be exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, to estimate the amount of damages caused by Mr. Rey's affirmative actions in disbursing, wasting or otherwise diminishing Plaintiff's jackpot prize winnings."
As a result of the "maelstrom of Texas political theater" the winner found herself caught up in, the lawsuit's main goal is to "compel" Rey "to follow the law" and pay out the prize to its "undisputed winner."
Documents go on to describe how she purchased the winning ticket through a lottery courier, matched all winning numbers in the Feb. 17, 2025 drawing, and presented her winning ticket one month later, all the while "in compliance with all applicable rules and regulations" throughout the entire timeline of events.
The TLC indeed determined she was the lawful bearer of the jackpot-winning ticket, but despite the validation, the agency "refused to comply with the law" and pay out the prize she was owed, "apparently at the behest of one or more elected office holders."
One week after it was announced that someone had purchased the winning ticket through a lottery ticket courier service, the Lottery announced a ban on couriers and the TLC's intention to move forward with rule changes prohibiting them in the future.
"We all know the Commission is not allowed to change the rules after the drawing," the lawsuit asserts. "But the Commission has apparently tried to do so and relied — at least in part — on this ex post facto announcement to continue to refuse to pay Plaintiff her lottery winnings simply because she utilized a lottery ticket courier service to buy the winning ticket."
According to the lawsuit, Rey and the TLC have refused to respond to written inquiries from the winner about whether the funds for her jackpot prize were being preserved or protected with the intention of being paid out to her as required by law.
"They are simply stonewalling the winner, stalling and not being responsible or acting with any integrity," the court filings stated. "In fact, what they are doing is illegal."
The anonymous woman is asking a judge to declare that she is the rightful winner of the $83.5 million Lotto Texas jackpot and subsequently demand that Rey award her the prize.
Pay her.
Motto of the Story...az uzual...
"We can screw You, but you can't screw Us"
* If an individual from Houston TX can sue a burger joint for nearly $1 million because they added onions to he's meal despite him telling them not to, this woman can sue for $83 million. Her case is airtight!
Shame on the Texas Lotto for this unfair move
If the courier service was legal and she has the ticket she should get paid. It looks like Texas is trying to exploit a loophole with the legality of the courier service
if you previously accepted money for Losing tickets then you should pay for winning tickets 🎫 Unless there is sufficient evidence of Fraud not Gossips then let the trial proceed innocent till proven guilty not guilty till proven innocent 😇 lol 😝
Actually, they should pay her for the jackpot that she won, plus interest, plus emotional distress. These lawmakers are just behaving like a bunch of big cry babies. Everything is bigger in Texas.
I am glad they filed the lawsuit finally.
There is no basis for emotional distress and interest will not be paid. Perhaps attorney fees.
Emotional distress requires psychological and medical records and one should not go there lightly. Not being paid for months does not qualify as emotional distress.
The US Constitution prohibits ex post facto laws by states.
Get your money and disappear.
Yoo No Wut Stinx?
I'll tell you what stinks.
Texas Lottery STINKS!
Now back to my liverwurst sandwich with .......
ShagE has spoken
Should the TLC be compelled to pay Jane Doe the $83 million prize, I see no reasons why the rest of the players who participated in the run of the game that resulted in the prize to " Jane Doe" not sue the TLC in a class action lawsuit, for possibly breach of implied contracts, equal protections of the law or other laws because the TLC had allowed by oversight of a loophole in the Lottery-Retailers relationship and/or contractual business agreements and arrangements to breach the players' rights to equality and/or fairness in playing the game at issue.
An outlet (Courier services) that promises its customers (The Janes and Johns Does) that by the outlets buying up, all or most of the combinations, they have a higher chances of pulling off the winning combinations - which can be argued as the incentive for Jane Doe, to have used this service - pay all the extra fees no matter how it is packaged as handling fees etc.
The currier services are heavily funded and/or patronized by professional betting schemes and backbones.
The everyday dollar and a dream player does not have the backbone of the courier services money-powers and influences and is not required to use their services in order to win. They too have suffered injury in this fiasco and if the TLC must be deemed liable to Jane Doe, it must also be deemed liable to the non "Jane and John Doe" out there, who participated in the game but outside of the courier services works and their chances of winnings were outright degraded and truncated at best.
What???? There is no proof that lesser winners were not paid out. There is no cause of action here for the other players since courier services were legal at that time.
And the 14th amendment to the Constitution addresses equal protection of protected classes such as race, gender, etc. Lottery players are not a protected class and the other players were not discriminated against in any manner. There was no injury suffered.
I did not make an argument that lesser winners were not paid or claimed that Courier services were illegal.
To the best of my knowledge, there is no intent on the part of the Texas legislature and the TLC to design lotteries that can be won by the brute force and power of deep-pocket money sunk in, to buy up all the combinations. That is not the intention of the state law-makers who legislated the lottery into existence and reserve the power to take it out of existence, if it is deemed to no longer serve the needs of the people or the basis of its attractions to the general public is no longer equal.
The reactions of the Texas lawmakers, the self-imposed attrition of the TLC leaderships are convincing empirical evidence and admission of guilt or fairlure by law-makers and custodians of the law(TLC leadership) that there are issues with the acts of the courier services and how the Jackpot was won.
The jackpot was not won on an equal playing field and that in essence is the core issues which has been recognized by the authorities. The field of play must be equal at all times and it was not in this case.
The lawmakers created the legislation for the TLC. The TLC then created the rules for the operations of the games. There is no intent, written or implied accommodation to capture the Jackpot like courier services had done when the jackpot reaches a certain level. The courier services have not attempted to do the same when the jackpot is at the lowest starting points.
I stand with the law-makers and the TLC leadership that the rules must be changed to restore equality and good faith in the playing field and I respect the brilliance of these authorities in taken all actions to curb the the issues that they face - granted that a mistake had been made on their part that allowed the courier services to defeat the lottery.
Courier services provides a method to capture the jackpot at a certain high level, the lotteries do not provide the same methods with 35 concentrated terminals at designated retailers. The field of play is simply unequal and there must be equality in the game field and the Texas government have failed to deliver.
There is verified inequality in the games playing field.
The element of an unequal playing field that led to Jane Doe's Jackpot win, should not be dismissed, as it also led to the others, who could have potentially won the jackpot not winning, if the field was equal.
The public accommodations and services law of the state may be invoked against the TLC for negligence of the TLC that caused the courier services to capture the Jackpot with acts that have indirectly caused the consequences, and state of inequality in the game that resulted in Jane Doe's jackpot win.
The lottery leadership and law-makers cannot be all that daft in demanding and insisting that payout should not yet be made, pending whatever it is that they are investigating.
I never specifically named the 14th Amendment but the Public Services and accommodation law is a law that protects the constitutional rights of all players - the right to equality in a playing field.
No brainer for the ticket holder. Unless the courier broke some sort of procedural rule, i.e. subcontracting overflow demand to non-courier agents, etc. I hope the plaintiff gets her money, though- no need for this to become a bigger s**tshow that it has already.
Exactly. I do not follow these crazy and irrelevant legal terms and theories some are invoking. A junior high student could understand things better.
The Public accommodations law has no relevancy here and is being cited incorrectly.
Bizarre. There is no case for negligence. Someone is really misusing some basic legal concepts. Yet the same member references equal protection of the law yet claims he did not mean the 14th amendment.