AUSTIN (Nexstar) — A Houston woman who won an $83.5 million jackpot playing the Lotto Texas game in February will be in a Travis County court Tuesday to ask a judge to protect her winnings from being spent. This comes as the Texas Lottery Commission is on the cusp of being eliminated by the state government.
Earlier this month a judge issued a temporary restraining order to prevent the Texas Lottery Commission (TLC) from spending any of the jackpot money on internal costs or paying that money out to other lottery winners.
Tuesday’s evidentiary hearing will determine whether that order should be extended until a trial can take place.
A new development in the case: the winner is no longer anonymous. Her attorney, Randy Howry, confirmed via text Tuesday morning that her name is Kristen Moriarty.
When asked why she chose to reveal her identity, Howry responded: “Tired of being ignored. Ready to fight.”
Moriarty’s win has become entangled in a political dispute over the future of the Texas Lottery Commission and the legality of lottery courier services. Those services allow people to purchase lottery tickets online via an application on your phone without ever having to set foot in a store.
Some of the courier services owned storefronts with lottery machines inside. That allowed them to print out tickets whenever they received an order through their app or website.
Lawmakers argued those services are illegal and against the state’s lottery code. Moriarty used one of those services, the Jackpocket app, to purchase $20 worth of tickets in February, which was printed out in a north Austin store called Winners Corner. One of her tickets had all six numbers to win the jackpot.
One week after her win the Texas Lottery Commission’s executive director at the time, Ryan Mindell, announced the agency is moving to ban those services from the state. Gov. Greg Abbott then called on the Texas Rangers to investigate Moriarty’s jackpot win and another April 2023 drawing which resulted in an entity known as Rook TX winning a $95 million jackpot.
When Moriarty and Howry went to present the winning ticket to the TLC on March 18, Howry said the commission told him and his client they would not be paid until the Texas Rangers conclude their investigation, and even then, they may not be paid out.
The legislature then passed Senate Bill 3070, which will dissolve the TLC and move the lottery game under the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. The governor has not signed the bill yet.