Like many regular lottery players, Jerry Reed played the same six numbers each time he bought his Lotto Texas ticket. On May 17, 2023, his persistence paid off.
The ticket, purchased at One World Grocery in Mansfield, outside of Fort Worth, hit the jackpot. Reed chose to receive his winnings in annuitized payments over time, worth $7.5 million.
KEY QUESTION: Can the Texas Lottery recover cash from an unfair $95M jackpot?
Now, however, Reed is claiming he is owed considerably more. The reason: His win was the first jackpot claimed after the controversial April 22, 2023, Lotto Texas draw, in which an entity called Rook TX all but guaranteed itself the winning ticket by acquiring nearly all of the 25.8 million possible number configurations. The entity was the sole winner, collecting a one-time payout of nearly $58 million.
As reported by the Houston Chronicle, the operation was planned by a Malta man, organized through a London betting company and carried out by four online ticket sales companies. It was aided by the Texas Lottery Commission itself, which appeared to have allowed the participants to skirt several of its own rules to carry out the logistically challenging scheme.
In a lawsuit being filed Tuesday in Travis County district court, Reed asserts that the violations should have voided the jackpot — in which case the prize he won would have been worth more than $100 million.
“Had the defendants not engaged in their illegal money laundering and game-rigging scheme connected to the April 22nd draw, the $95 million jackpot would have rolled over, as there were no other winners,” the lawsuit claims. “Consequently, Jerry Reed's May 17th jackpot win would have been $102.5 million instead of $7.5 million.”
EXCLUSIVE: Texas lottery officials helped companies win a $95M jackpot.That’s not the only favor they got.
The Texas Lottery Commission’s former director, Gary Grief, has said that no laws or rules were violated during the April 2023 game. Grief retired in early 2024.
Reed's lawsuit is the second seeking to recover money on behalf of other lottery players claiming they were disadvantaged by the Rook TX operation.
A class action lawsuit filed in February seeks reimbursement for Lotto ticket buyers who said they were misled by the state’s advertisements that they were competing for a $95 million jackpot. In fact, the best they could have hoped for was to split the top prize with Rook TX, the suit claims, which virtually locked it up with its big buy.
The new lawsuit also echoes a similar — and successful – claim filed in Iowa following a tainted draw. In 2011, a financial adviser named Larry Dawson won a $9 million Hot Lotto jackpot, opting to collect a one-time $6 million cash payout.
Six years later, the former head of information security for the Multi-State Lottery Association, Eddie Tipton, admitted he had used his computer skills and insider access to rig numerous lottery games for family and friends. One of them had been the $16.5 million Hot Lotto jackpot awarded just before Dawson claimed his prize.
In his lawsuit against the association, Dawson said that if it hadn’t been for the illegally won game, he would have collected more than twice his jackpot on the following draw. In 2019, on the eve of the scheduled trial, his claim was settled for $1.5 million.
The Multi-State Lottery Association admitted to no wrongdoing. But that same year it also agreed to pay $4.3 million to cover the costs of tickets of other players who were victims of Tipton’s rigged games.
In his case, Reed alleges that former executives from one of the online sales companies, Texas-based Lottery.com, were behind the April 2023 Lotto Texas operation. Those claims have not been proven.
Reed’s lawsuit is the latest fallout from the April 2023 draw. State lawmakers angry at the Texas Lottery Commission’s role in the draw have proposed a number of bills to prevent a similar occurrence again.
One would ban players from acquiring “substantially all winning combinations.” Another would ban online lottery sales companies, called couriers, which helped carry out the scheme (though none used their apps to process the tickets). A third legislative proposal simply eliminates the lottery. All remain pending in the current legislative session, which wraps up in early June.
The lottery commission has adjusted its rules and procedures to thwart another big-buy attempt, as well. The agency said its staff would no longer approve last-minute retailer requests for dozens of extra ticket terminals and pallets of paper, as was done for the 2023 Lotto draw. It also made similar mass ticket purchases nearly impossible by limiting the number of tickets each lottery vending terminal can process in a single day.
Meanwhile, Gov. Greg Abbott has ordered the Texas Rangers to look into the 2023 draw. Attorney General Ken Paxton has announced his office is also conducting its own investigation.
Last week, during a legislative update, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick predicted the investigations would find serious wrongdoing. “I believe at the end of the day, we’ll find out that the Lottery has been used as the biggest money laundering scheme in the country,” he said.
April 8, 2025|Updated April 8, 2025 3:50 p.m.
Investigative Reporter