Oregon welcomes anonymous claims and bans ticket reselling

Bulk buying is the next target

By Kate Northrop

During a commission meeting on Friday, the Oregon Lottery Commission discussed rule proposals that would regulate courier services in the state by disallowing international ticket purchases and prevent bulk ticket purchases above a certain threshold.

In light of a major bulk purchase event in Texas and rule proposals in other states, the Oregon Lottery proposed rule changes that would still allow courier services to continue operating in the state and prohibit bulk ticket purchases.

For over a decade, courier services have operated in the state of Oregon. The Oregon Lottery has historically maintained a "very neutral stance" on the third-party businesses, which facilitate the purchase of lottery tickets for players over the Internet.

But more recently, Lottery Director Mike Wells said in a commission meeting, "the landscape has really changed when it comes to couriers," including a rise in the number of couriers operating in the state, the expansion in the types of lottery products the couriers are selling, and a "decline in transparency" from those courier services.

More specifically, Lottery Rules and Policy Analyst Kris Skaro said, the increase in Oregon couriers is mostly attributed to those who sell internationally.

In 2015, the Oregon Lottery made headlines when an Iraq national living in Baghdad won a $6.4 million Megabucks jackpot from a ticket purchased via theLotter. The courier service had purchased the physical ticket at a lottery retailer in Bend, Oregon and securely stored it on his behalf until he made the trip to the United States to claim the prize.

On July 18, a rule proposal was submitted to the Oregon Lottery Commission for review, which would "prohibit Lottery retailers from working with couriers who facilitate ticket purchases beyond Oregon's borders."

The rule proposal comes amidst mounting pressure to cover any regulatory gaps that may result in situations similar to the bulk purchase event that happened in Texas.

"The absence of clear rules presents substantial risks to the Lottery's constitutional obligation to uphold fairness, integrity, security, and honesty in all operations," the proposal reads. "Failure to act promptly may jeopardize Oregon's participation in national games such as Powerball and Mega Millions, strain relationships with key national and international partners, and hinder the development of future gaming initiatives. Moreover, the current lack of regulation may inadvertently contribute to violations of international law."

The Lottery has acknowledged that taking away out-of-state ticket sales will negatively impact their revenue, but it's a necessary step in the face of upholding "brand integrity, trust, and core values." The risk of losing a potential national partnership with entities such as Powerball and Mega Millions would be far more of a significant detriment. In March, Multi-State Lottery Association Executive Director Bret Toyne wrote a note to Wells expressing concern that couriers were violating Powerball game rules and federal law.

"Specifically, I have received complaints about a company, located in Australia, working with a retailer to purchase, and then resell Powerball tickets," Toyne wrote in a letter obtained by Oregon Live. "There are additional concerns with unregulated courier services that are also operating in Oregon that are also selling Powerball tickets across borders. These activities are in violation of the game rule."

The Mega Millions consortium issued a similar warning that threatened to revoke the Oregon Lottery's ability to sell Mega Millions tickets if their "serious concerns" were not addressed.

If international sales were discontinued at the end of Business Year 2025, the Lottery estimates that it would lose between $32.6 and $54.9 million in gross revenue and see an estimated $11.1 to $18.7 million decline in annual state transfers.

But it's a relative drop in the bucket for the Oregon Lottery, which is forecasting a $1.9 billion transfer to the state fund for the 2025-2027 biennium.

The main losers are courier services and the retailers who work with courier services that facilitate international and out-of-state ticket sales. Retailers would lose commissions earned by those sales on an average of $32,300 per month, and while the Lottery does not have access to internal sales data from couriers, it is aware that one of its high-volume international courier services sold about $4.4 million in tickets to international customers in the first four months of 2025.

These changes will only affect those retailers who work with a courier service. Currently, the Lottery is aware of about seven retailers who work with courier services and six retailers who work with courier services selling internationally and out-of-state. However, the exact number may be unknown since couriers are unregulated in Oregon.

Other potential changes also include additional "integrity requirements for in-state only couriers, and mandating retailers ensure compliance with these standards." Most of these proposed amendments are administrative in nature and require retailers and couriers alike to tighten up their recordkeeping and communication. For example, a retailer must make any relationship with a courier service clear to the Lottery, verify that the courier complies with Lottery requirements, and absolve the Lottery of any fault for issues resulting from a courier's actions.

The next proposed amendment would ban bulk ticket purchases, which the Oregon Lottery defines as buying more than 50,000 tickets in a single game. More specifically, the change would limit players to purchasing no more than 50,000 in the same game or no more than 50,000 unique number combinations in a single drawing.

The Lottery identified 50,000 as the threshold amount to capture both draw and scratch-off games simultaneously, while not impacting the average player. If the rule is somehow circumvented, the Lottery stated that it would have full authority to deny prize payment.

To clarify the need for the purchase limit, Skaro recalled "some incidents that have happened in other jurisdictions where a group of folks conspired to purchase all or most of the tickets in a game or drawing," most notably the "high-profile case in Texas, where [the group] purchased 26 million unique number combinations to secure a $[95] million jackpot."

In July, the Arizona Lottery imposed a 50,000-ticket purchase limit of their own, citing an effort to "uphold public trust." Other state lotteries, such as New York and New Jersey, are also putting their heads together to review courier regulations in their respective jurisdictions, likely to dodge the same "strong negative public reaction" that had befallen the Texas Lottery.

Skaro said the Oregon Lottery already has "internal procedures in place to control the distribution of inventory and ticket printing equipment to retailers, which should prevent these schemes from happening in Oregon," but taking these additional steps toward regulation is a "further deterrent" that can provide some peace of mind.

In anticipation of proceeding with these rule changes, the Lottery has already reached out to the small number of retailers who would be most impacted by the changes and is welcoming public comment on its proposals through the month of August. The commission will reconvene in September for another review.