Another fascinating deep dive into how a recent Lottery was won by an outfit that had bought a ticket foe every possible combination.
In the year and a half since an anonymous player engineered a $95 million Texas lottery jackpot win by buying virtually all of the 25.8 million possible number combinations, two mysteries have persisted:
Who did it? And how did the small group of outlets conducting the operation process so many tickets in only 72 hours while still following the strict rules the Texas Lottery Commission places on its sales?
Now there are some answers — one of which raises new questions about the Texas Lottery Commission’s role in abetting the operation, which, while controversial, did not violate any state laws or game rules, according to the agency.
After seven months without a player correctly picking all six numbers, the April 22, 2023, Lotto Texas jackpot had climbed to the third-highest in state history. The single winner took advantage of a state law allowing big winners to remain anonymous. In June, the one-time payout of $57.8 million was claimed by Rook TX, a limited partnership identifying only a New Jersey lawyer as its registered agent.
According to three sources, however, the Texas lottery operation was orchestrated by a gaming entrepreneur operating out of Malta, a Mediterranean island nation that is a hub for the online gaming industry. There is evidence the enterprise was funded through a large London betting company with connections to similar lottery buys.
A Florida investor said the Malta businessman told him he had orchestrated the big Texas payday.
Late last year, Philip Gurian, owner of Honey Tree Trading, lent an online lottery sales company called Lottery.com $1.3 million, according to allegations in court documents. The Austin-based Lottery.com played a central role in the April 2023 Lotto operation; it and an affiliate in Waco processed nearly 7 million of the tickets for the draw.
In an interview, Gurian said that soon after he made the investment, he attended a gathering of Lottery.com executives and others at a Boca Raton mansion being rented by the company’s board chairman. While at the party, he said he met a gaming software executive named Ade Repcenko.
“He told me he worked with a syndicate, and they pool money so that when lotteries get big enough they buy up all the tickets and get a big return,” Gurian recalled. “He said, ‘We just did it in Texas.’” Repcenko added that the buying syndicate conducted such operations several times a year, Gurian said. The Texas Lottery Commission has said such professional buying does not violate any rules.
Two other sources close to the April 2023 Lotto Texas operation confirmed Repcenko was the point person. Repcenko, founder of Malta-based Spinola Gaming, did not respond to multiple phone calls, emails and texts.
[…]
So-called professional buyers have been a lively topic among state lottery officials, Texas Lottery Director Ryan Mindell told legislators last month. He testified that investors recently had approached state lotteries in Indiana, Oklahoma and Maryland when their jackpots had climbed to levels making it mathematically attractive for gambling syndicates to score a large return with minimal risk by buying all, or most number combinations.
None of the state lottery agencies returned calls and emails for details. That could be because investor-led lottery plays are controversial, creating tension between government agencies charged with maximizing profits, and everyday players expecting a fair game when they buy a ticket or two.
For lottery agencies striving to raise money for good public causes — Texas lottery proceeds primarily fund schools — having a single customer buy millions of tickets generates a huge windfall. While most Lotto Texas games sell 1-2 million tickets, for example, the April 22, 2023, draw sold 28 million.
Yet guaranteeing the grand prize to a single customer is widely perceived as unfair to other players, who unknowingly are competing against a sure winner for only half the advertised jackpot. The specter of a state lottery draw being taken advantage of by foreign buyers would make such operations especially awkward.
“We should not mention anything about Lotto Texas wholesale operations in the US,” Lottery.com’s Potts wrote in an internal email debriefing company officers on the April 22 operation that was reviewed by the Chronicle. “This type of business is legal and compliant but is not something we publicize. It is considered cheating by lottery players and we do not want to raise attention to it.”
The practice nevertheless remains legal in many, if not all states, including Texas. Still, agencies often create procedural and logistical roadblocks that make it extremely difficult for a single buyer to acquire millions of tickets within the short timeframe between draws.
The Texas Lottery Commission, by comparison, assisted the single-buyer operation corner the $95 million April 22, 2023, Lotto Texas jackpot.
See here, here, and here for the background. As with the previous stories there’s a lot to this one, so read the rest. The short answer at this point is that the appropriate legislative committees need to hold some hearings and then as appropriate put forth one or more bills to address this issue. I don’t think it’s necessary to ban this practice, but there’s no reason it should be facilitated. Make these syndicates follow the same rules that ordinary players follow, and we’re good. It should be on the Lege to deal with it.
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