Indictment of former Texas Lottery director dismissed by Travis County District Attorney days later – AOL
AUSTIN (Nexstar) — Gary Grief, the former executive director of the Texas Lottery Commission who was accused of conspiring to defraud Texas lottery players, was indicted by a grand jury in Travis County last month on a felony charge for abuse of official capacity related to an April 2023 lottery win. But the Travis County district attorney’s office dismissed the case for “prosecutorial discretion.”
Assistant District Attorney Rob Drummond signed the motion to dismiss the case just three days after the grand jury indictment. Nexstar reached out to the Travis County DA’s office for an explanation for the dismissal and are waiting to hear back.
Nexstar also asked the office if District Attorney José Garza had any say about the motion to dismiss or if ADA Drummond acted on his own.
Grief retired in 2024 just before a Houston Chronicle investigation revealed a group of investors were able to purchase nearly every single number combination to almost guarantee a $95 million jackpot in an April 2023 Lotto Texas drawing. Lotto Texas is a draw game where players select six numbers between 1 and 54.
File photo of Gary Grief, the former executive director of the Texas Lottery Commission (Photo Courtesy: KXAN).
The indictment accuses Grief of “intentionally and knowingly misuse government property, services, personnel, or a thing of value belonging to the government” in the April 22, 2023 Lotto Texas drawing.
You can read the full indictment below:
The allegations made against the Texas Lottery Commission (TLC) eventually led lawmakers to disband the agency in 2025 and transfer the lottery games and bingo under the supervision of the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation.
Former Texas Lottery director accused of defrauding Texans
Texas lawmakers pressed TLC leadership hard about why they created rule changes that opened the door for lottery courier services — which are companies that allow players to purchase lottery tickets through an app on their phone — to operate in the Lone Star state.
In January 2025, 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.”
A Houston-based attorney, Manfred Sternberg, accused Grief of working with another entity, Lottery.com, to rig the April 2023 drawing. To supplement his claims, Sternberg sent a 22-page document alleging Grief and Lottery.com worked together not only during the jackpot incident but for years. They allege the partnership started in 2017 when Grief allegedly traveled with another Texas Lottery Commission employee to San Francisco to entice Lottery.com co-founders Tony DiMatteo and Matthew Clemenson to move the company to Austin.
The documents accused Grief of bypassing the normal legislative process to change lottery rules to allow cell phones to place lottery bets, opening up the potential for courier services like Lottery.com. They also allege his changes to allow 24-hour printing of tickets and anonymous claims for winners were designed to help Lottery.com. Also attached to the allegations was a 2019 letter addressed from Grief to DiMatteo telling him Texas Powerball tickets could be purchased by “foreign jurisdictions” as long as the sales were legal where the player was located.
Sternberg also alleges Grief helped another Lottery.com co-founder, Ryan Dickinson, to print “hundreds of thousands of illegal lottery tickets in Texas using these fraudulently issued Texas Lottery terminals, printing these tickets mostly at night. These illegal tickets were being sold to customers in locations outside of the State of Texas who were purchasing the tickets on the Lottery.com app, not knowing their ticket would actually be printed in a different state than they were located.”
Sam Bassett, an attorney representing Grief, said at the time that his client denied being part of any scheme.
“Gary Grief served the Texas Lottery Commission as Executive Director for approximately 15 years,” Bassett wrote in February 2025. “He is proud of what he and his dedicated staff accomplished during those years. Gary adamantly denies being part of any dishonest, fraudulent or illegal scheme during his tenure and looks forward to cooperating in any official inquiry addressing the allegations being made.”
When asked about the indictment last month, Bassett said they have no comment at this time.
Last year Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick called on the Texas Rangers to investigate the April 2023 Lotto Texas win. Nexstar reached out to the Department of Public Safety to see if the Rangers are still actively investigating the win. A spokesperson with the agency said it referred our questions to the Travis County DA office.
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