Texas Lottery Has An About Face. Moves To Ban Lottery Couriers.

All the drama surrounding the Texas Lottery lately has been must-see TV in essence. We are all people who love a good drama, and this whole saga has been more entertaining than most television shows on these days.

It's gone from being a potential vessel for money laundering, to lottery couriers, to online purchasing of tickets. All these things have apparently infuriated the local government, and started to get the public's trust in them to waver.

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As I look at it from the outside in, I can understand the frustrations around all of it...except maybe the online purchasing of tickets. I mean, that has been very helpful for someone like me who likes to play, but always forgets to buy a ticket.

The money laundering claims came from someone who won a jackpot by spending over $20 million on tickets. They feel that there could've been some potential laundering going on there in an attempt to hide some money. It's a viable thought.

The courier services? This has been possibly the biggest issue of all of them. It's one of the most hotly contested topics as to whether or not they're legal and should be allowed to exist.

If you don't know what a lottery courier is, it's basically a store setup with a plethora of lottery machines that can print millions of tickets. They are allowed to exist, as long as they're not selling ONLY lottery tickets. Most sell board games or something of the sort to be able to exist.

Approximately a year ago, someone won a huge Texas Lottery jackpot of $95 million. Doesn't seem like anything out of the ordinary, but it was recently unveiled that this person bought up nearly every single number combination that existed to essentially guarantee a win.

This can only truly be done through a lottery courier that would've allowed them to print that many tickets in a shorter period of time. The Texas Lottery remained mum on their stance of lottery couriers, essentially saying there's nothing they can do about it.

Well a couple of weeks ago, another jackpot of over $80 million was won...and the winning ticket was purchased at a lottery courier. More concerns were raised, people's voices got louder, and now, the Texas Lottery has had an about face.

Texas Lottery Executive Director Ryan Mindell has now moved to ban all lottery couriers in the state of Texas. Ironically, this all happened on the same day that the Senate State Affairs Committee had a hearing trying to ban smartphone or telephone purchases of lottery tickets.

So what's the big deal about all this? Is it illegal to purchase all the number combinations? No, it's not illegal at all. It's just unethical.

It's all about fairness. If people have outlets and the means to be able to spend millions of dollars on tickets to essentially guarantee a win, then us normal folk wouldn't stand a chance, therefore making it an unfair advantage.

This saga is far from over, so stay tuned.