Texas Lottery Executive Director Resigns Amid Jackpot Controversy

Texas Lottery Commission Executive Director Ryan Mindell resigned on Monday as state lawmakers have stepped up criticism of the agency’s management and scrutinized two recent payouts of nearly $100 million that some alleged had ties to money laundering, the Dallas Morning News reported.

Mindell took over as the agency’s director just last year, replacing longtime agency leader Gary Grief after he resigned following questions about how the commission was being run and a lottery winning.

Sergio Ray, the agency’s chief financial officer, is serving as its interim director following Mindell’s resignation. The commission’s board will consider how to select the next permanent executive director next week, at its next open meeting on April 29.

In House and Senate committee meetings this session, Texas lawmakers have been increasingly critical of the agency, amplified by an $83.5 million jackpot in April from an Austin lottery store that is connected to a third-party lottery courier service, which can buy tickets on behalf of another party.

And two years ago, in April 2023, an overseas entity won a $95 million payout by buying more than 25 million of the lottery’s $1 tickets, guaranteeing that it would hold “nearly every possible number combination,” Gov. Greg Abbott has said.

Both of those winning tickets came from bulk purchases through third-party courier services.

Following this year’s jackpot, Abbott directed the Texas Rangers to investigate both jackpots in question, and Attorney General Ken Paxton followed suit, launching an investigation into both of those “possibly unlawful” winnings.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick later instructed the Rangers to expand that investigation to encompass “any and all matters related to the Lottery Commission first allowing lottery couriers into Texas and any and all possible crimes internally or externally arising from the Lottery Commission’s actions or failures to act.”

Legislators have mirrored that frustration this session, drafting bills to abolish the lottery entirely and to ban the use of courier services to sell Texas Lottery tickets.

“I’ve been extremely frustrated with the Lottery Commission and their lack of regulating and addressing a Texas lottery that has become absolutely corrupt,” said Prosper Republican Rep. Matt Shaheen, the author of a House proposal to close the lottery, according to the Morning News.

Meanwhile, in February, the Texas Senate passed a ban on couriers out of the chamber, with some senators registering concern that the services would allow minors to buy lottery tickets.   

Shaheen has introduced a companion version of the bill in the House.

Still, even without legislation, the Texas Lottery Commission is under routine review by the state this year. If lawmakers don’t act, it could be wound down at the end of August.