$83.5M Texas Lottery Winner to Get $45.8M After Courier Fiasco
Although not nearly the entire amount, a Houston lady whose $83.5 million Texas Lottery jackpot win was put in limbo while the state attorney general looked into potential wrongdoing will eventually get her money.
In mid-February, Kristen Moriarty was unlucky enough to win the lotto at a time when public and political criticism of the lottery courier sector was at its peak.
The news that a network of courier services had assisted a European betting syndicate in purchasing 25.8 million tickets for the April 22, 2023 draw—enough to cover every potential winning combination—shocked Texans.
The syndicate won a $95 million jackpot and millions in secondary prizes by using lottery couriers' bulk purchasing skills to make sure they had every base covered.
"Theft by the Public"
The lottery syndicate plan was dubbed "the biggest theft from the people of Texas in Texas history" by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick of Texas. Unless courier services were prohibited, Patrick threatened to cancel the lottery completely.
The Texas Rangers and the AG's Office started looking into the jackpot right away, and Moriarty, who also purchased her ticket online from a lottery courier, got caught in the crossfire.
In a May lawsuit against the Texas Lottery Commission (TLC), Moriarty claimed she felt ensnared in a legal dispute that had nothing to do with her.
Nor did she purchase millions of tickets in bulk. According to the lawsuit, she only made use of a service that had been in operation in Texas for a number of years with the TLC's implicit agreement.
‘Sad, Stressed, and Angry’
“I’m sad, stressed, angry that this has become a political thing,” she told The Texas Tribune in June. “I’ve lost faith in our elected officials. And yeah, I really don’t know what else to say that I can say out loud.”
According to court documents submitted on Thursday, the two parties have reached a consensus under the AG's Office's advice. A one-time payment of $45.8 million before taxes will be given to Moriarty.
Shortly after Moriarty won the lottery, lottery couriers were outlawed, and the legislature passed a bill in late May that will abolish the troubled TLC, which has come under fire for how it handles the lottery.
The TLC is also alleged to have fostered the courier sector, prioritizing ticket sales over game integrity.
