Former Texas Lottery chief faces hearing over $95M jackpot

TEXAS — Former Texas Lottery executive director Gary Grief is due in Travis County court for a pretrial hearing Friday in connection with a 2023 $95 million Lotto Texas jackpot.

Grief is accused of abusing his official capacity in connection with the jackpot, which was the third-highest in Texas Lottery history.

The case is shining a spotlight on the Lotto Texas game and what happened behind the scenes as the jackpot reached $95 million.

“This is an abuse of official capacity case brought in Travis County,” said JoDee Neil, a Texas attorney.

The case goes back to April 2023, when the Lotto Texas jackpot soared to $95 million. According to the Texas Scorecard, an operation connected to an overseas gambler spent about $25 million to purchase millions of lottery tickets.

One of those tickets was a winner.

“What they did was they bought 25 million combinations of numbers, and then they had all of these different satellites using Lotto.com that they printed out all the tickets,” said Neil.

Neil said the issue isn’t that the group bought a large number of tickets. The question, she said, is whether Grief had the authority to allow it.

“It is alleged that he gave his blessing for this, which effectively legalized online gambling in Texas,” said Neil.

Grief was indicted by the Travis County District Attorney’s Office in April, but that case was dismissed days later. A second grand jury later returned the same first-degree felony charge, which is why Grief is due back in court on Friday.

Neil said the outcome of the case could create doubts for Texans about the lottery.

“I think it would really erode the public confidence in the lottery system,” said Neil.

Grief’s attorney, Sam Bassett, said the indictment is politically motivated and not based on evidence of a crime. Bassett also said Grief cooperated with investigators and that the facts will show he did nothing wrong.

Bassett disputed reports that Grief was hiding or out of the country early last year, saying he was on a brief family vacation.

As the pretrial hearing gets underway, Grief is presumed innocent. His attorney says he is confident the facts will clear him.