“She played by all the rules,” an attorney for the woman tells PEOPLE. “She did everything the right way”
A woman who hit the jackpot in a Texas lottery drawing last month said her $83.5 million prize is being withheld from state lottery officials amid controversy over the use of third-party couriers in buying tickets.
The woman, who preferred to remain anonymous, said in an interview with the Austin American-Statesman published on Tuesday, March 18, that she came forward to claim her winnings from the Feb. 17 Lotto Texas jackpot drawing but did not receive them.
The woman used Jackpocket, an app that allows users to purchase lottery tickets through the phone, NBC affiliate KXAN reported.
Jackpocket is a subsidiary of sports betting company DraftKings, which also owns the Winner’s Corner store, located in North Austin, where the winning ticket was purchased, according to Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, according to CBS affiliate KHOU.
On X, Patrick shared a clip of his visit to the Winner’s Corner the day after the Feb. 17 drawing. In the video, a person at the store, who says he is the manager, tells Patrick that the winning $83.5 million ticket was purchased through a courier.
“The bottom line is, if people are going to have confidence in the lottery, we have to be sure that no one has an advantage,” said Patrick, who noted that the store had numerous lottery terminals. “This is not the way the lottery was designed to operate.”
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced on Feb. 24 that he called on state law enforcement officials to look into the wins from an April 2023 Lotto Texas jackpot drawing and the recent Feb. 17 drawing, The New York Times reported.
“Texans must be able to trust in our state’s lottery system and know that the lottery is conducted with integrity and lawfully,” Abbott said at the time.
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Speaking with PEOPLE, Randy Howry, the woman’s attorney, says his client — a widow and a mother of two children – had previously used the Jackpocket app for several years and had always been paid for her winnings. “She just preferred to play this way and felt more safe and didn’t have to leave her house,” Howry explains.
Ahead of the woman and Howry’s meeting with state lottery officials this past Tuesday to claim the prize, a preliminary check was performed to make sure the woman’s numbers matched up, followed by the client’s telephone interview with a lottery investigator, according to Howry.
But at the appointed meeting day, lottery officials told the woman that the winnings would not be given out until an investigation is completed, Howry claims, but says the lottery officials have offered no timeline.
He also maintains his client did nothing wrong.
“She played by all the rules,” says Howry. “She did everything the right way…She’s just a regular citizen who decided to play the lottery…If you allow a person to play by your rules and they win and you refuse to pay ’em, then why would anyone play the Texas lottery going forward?”
