Ex-Texas Lottery Chief ‘Rigged’ $95M Jackpot, Claims Lawsuit
A class-action lawsuit claims that former Texas Lottery CEO Gary Grief set the stage for a "criminal conspiracy" that enabled a Europe-based syndicate to manipulate the system and secure a $95 million jackpot.
Grief, who directed the lottery commission for 15 years, rejected any misconduct through his attorney on Sunday.
The Texas Lottery draw on April 22, 2023, was unfavorable for every participant in the state. This is due to the syndicate purchasing 25.8 million tickets, which is sufficient to account for every possible winning combination.
Following 93 rollovers, it was one of those uncommon moments when a lottery turns mathematically advantageous. With the jackpot at $95 million, the syndicate invested $25.8 million, one dollar per ticket, to secure all the combinations. This would ensure at minimum a portion of the jackpot and a majority of the other secondary prizes too.
‘Conspiracy’ Defined
Naturally, the syndicate faced a logistical issue. Specifically, what is the process for purchasing 25.8 million tickets for a lottery that usually sells one to two million tickets weekly?
The allegation asserts that Grief, for several years, "fraudulently" created the circumstances for a syndicate to take advantage of the lottery, harming players in Texas.
Last week, Dawn Nettles, who founded LottoReport.com, a lottery oversight website, filed a lawsuit on behalf of all players in the Texas Lottery.
The lawsuit asserts that the “conspiracy” started in 2017 when Gary Grief went to California to persuade the creators of Lottery.com to move their operations to Austin, Texas.
“From that moment on until Mr. Grief’s sudden retirement in early 2024, the Lottery Commission and Lottery.com became a combined single criminal entity,” it asserts.
Lottery.com, another defendant in the case, is an online lottery courier service and one of the few enlisted by the syndicate to acquire and handle the millions of tickets needed to encompass every possible combination of numbers.
‘Circumvented Legislature’
The lawsuit claims that Grief circumvented the standard legislative procedure to amend regulations, permitting ticket purchases via cell phones and thereby creating opportunities for courier services such as Lottery.com.
He additionally allowed the printing of tickets around the clock and anonymous claims for victors, regulations intended to facilitate lottery couriers and, ultimately, the syndicate, as stated in the lawsuit. He is additionally charged with permitting Lottery.com to produce hundreds of thousands of tickets on credit.
In a 2019 letter from Grief to Lottery.com co-founder Tony DiMatteo, presented as evidence, Grief states that Texas Powerball tickets could be bought by “foreign jurisdictions” provided that the sales were lawful in the player's location.
The complaint claims that these actions violated Texas Lottery rules and aims to recover money "fraudulently acquired by the Texas Lottery Commission, along with declaratory and injunctive relief to stop further wrongdoing."
Grief stepped down in early 2024, just a few months before The Houston Chronicle revealed how the syndicate had manipulated the Texas Lottery and its participants.
