According to court records, on February 17, a woman (unknown) living in Montgomery County, Texas, purchased a Lotto Texas lottery ticket through the Jackpocket application - a platform that supports home loans and lottery ticket delivery services.
The ticket she owned had a row of numbers that completely matched the prize draw results of the same day at 10:12.
The official website of the Texas lottery later confirmed the victory, stating that there was only one ticket that matched all six lucky numbers: 19, 21, 25, 45, 47, 52.
However, more than three months since then, the bonus of $83.5 million (equivalent to more than VND 2,100 billion) has not yet been paid.
The case began to turn into a complicated one when just a week after the draw, then-TLC CEO - Mr. Ryan Mindell - suddenly issued a ban on the use of lottery ticket purchasing services such as Jackpocket, citing state legal regulations.
The ban came into effect on May 19, but Mindell resigned in April, shortly after his controversial speech.
The winning woman determined that she had fully complied with current regulations, and receiving the award was a legitimate right of any citizen when owning a valid lottery ticket.
The woman said that her ticket had been verified by the Committee and confirmed by the Committee that she was the legal owner of the winning lottery.
The May 21 lawsuit collected by USA Today reads: "There was no time when Sergio Rey, the Lottery Commission or anyone who was believed to represent the Commission claimed that the ticket was invalid, counterfeit, fraudulent, or had an imprecise transfer chain or violated the law."
Her lawyer said that the winning money could have been held back for other purposes, such as paying for other winners or offsetting the operating costs of the lottery system.
Online lottery ticket purchasing services - such as Jackpocket - are increasingly popular in the US. These companies act as intermediaries, representing customers who buy tickets at traditional stores, then sending notices if they win.
In Texas, this form has been controversial since April 2023, after an individual bought up to 25 million tickets within 72 hours through similar services, in order to increase the chance of winning the prize.
That player eventually won the lottery with a total prize of 89 million USD (more than 2,300 billion VND in pre-tax).
