Ideally, winning the lottery would be cause for celebration, yet that isn’t the case for a woman in Texas who hit a $83.5 million jackpot but can’t claim her prize. On March 18, the winner went to claim her prize but couldn’t do so due to certain lottery regulations happening in Texas at the moment. The reason behind all of this is that she bought the ticket through an app. For the unaware, Texas banned all lottery courier services, which is where the woman won the ticket from, so it’s a whole mess between the government investigating what to do and the poor woman not being able to claim her winnings.
KHOU 11 shared the above video where, on March 18, the woman approached the Texas Lottery Commission to claim her $83.5 million prize. However, they didn’t give her any money due to the recent ban on lottery courier services. Initially, she bought the ticket through the Jackpocket app and purchased it from Winner’s Corner in North Austin.
In an interview with the Austin American-Statesman, the woman said the following:
“I literally spend $20. I didn’t spend $26 million to run every single possible combination of numbers. If you didn’t do an investigation, that’s on you. That’s not my fault.” She said, referring to the Lottery Commission.
Naturally, this has caused many people to share their opinions on the matter.
“She didn’t do anything wrong! Pay her damnit.” @somewhere-n-Texas (YouTube)
“I am realizing that the Texas lotto is keeping people’s winnings! how dare them!!! anything that they can do to keep all the money for themselves” @doorkeeper4872 (YouTube)
Right now, the government is investigating this winning, as well as one back in April 2023 that involved a $95 million jackpot. The ticket holders won’t be able to get their money until the ongoing investigations reach a conclusion.
