Days after the Senate Finance Committee grilled the Texas Lottery Commission about how they handled a $95 million Lotto Texas jackpot from April 2023, new allegations surfaced about former Texas Lottery Commissioner Gary Grief’s role.
In April 2024, a Houston Chronicle investigation revealed a group of investors had essentially gamed a $95 million jackpot, spending nearly $26 million to buy almost every possible number combination. In January, a report from the state’s Sunset Advisory Commission said “Grief seemed quite comfortable operating in the gray areas of the State Lottery Act when the agency’s authority was not crystal clear or the Legislature remained silent on emerging issues.”
On Wednesday, a Houston-based lawyer made stronger allegations.
“My client believes that this criminal conspiracy started in 2017 when Gary Grief traveled to California to lobby the founders of Lottery.com to relocate their business to Austin,” attorney Manfred Sternberg told the committee. “From that moment on until Mr. Grief’s sudden retirement in early 2024, the Lottery Commission and Lottery.com became ..."
