Women will finally get paid $83.5M after suing lottery commission

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A Houston woman who sued Texas Lottery after they refused to acknowledge her $83.5-million win will finally get paid.

An agreement between the lottery commission and Kristen Moriarty was filed on July 31, according to court records obtained by the Texas Tribune.

Moriarty purchased $20 worth of Texas Lotto tickets, including the winning one, on Feb. 17, using Jackpocket, an app that allows users to play “official state lottery games on your phone,” according to their website.

However, around the time of her purchase, Texas lawmakers were arguing that lottery courier services were illegal under state laws and were not happy the Texas Lottery Commission (TLC) allowed the services to operate in the state.

Soon after the draw, Texas Senate eventually passed a bill that would ban courier services, citing two investigations into the operations in Texas by the Department of Public Safety and Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office.

The first was a $95-million prize won in April 2023 after a single group, with the help of a courier company, bought nearly every possible combination of the 26 million tickets.

The second was Moriarty’s win, which the agency had refused to pay out.

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Randy Howry, Moriarty’s attorney, told People magazine in March that his client, a woman and mother of two who at the time did not want to be identified, had been using the Jackpocket app for years and had always been paid for her winnings.

“She just preferred to play this way and felt more safe and didn’t have to leave her house,” Howry explained.

“She played by all the rules. She did everything the right way.”

Moriarty sued the commission in May for the money, telling the Tribune that she felt trapped in a legal battle in which she had no part.

“I’m sad, stressed, angry that this has become a political thing; I’ve lost faith in our elected officials,” Moriarty said.

Following the settlement, Howry’s law firm told People the “civil justice system was the only way to right this wrong.”

They added: “Six months later, with considerable loss financially and emotionally, the lawsuit and the civil justice system forced the Lottery Commission to do the right thing – pay the winner.”