Posted on: May 13, 2026, 06:47h.
Last updated on: May 13, 2026, 06:47h.
- Texas Lottery scandal deepens after former director briefly indicted
- Syndicate spent $25 million printing tickets across Texas in 72 hours
- Investigations ordered by Texas leaders still have produced no public findings
The former director of the now-defunct Texas Lottery Commission, blamed by many for a European gambling syndicate’s controversial $95 million Lotto jackpot win, was briefly charged with abuse of public office, The Houston Chronicle reports.
Gary Grief was indicted by a grand jury on April 16, but the felony charges were dismissed the next day by the Travis County District Attorney’s Office under “prosecutorial discretion,” with no further details, according to court documents seen by the Chronicle.
Grief, who led the lottery commission for 15 years, retired in early 2024, shortly before news broke that the April 22, 2023 Texas Lottery draw had been rendered effectively unwinnable for ordinary Texans.
How the Scheme Played Out
A syndicate funded by secretive professional gambler Zeljko Ranogajec orchestrated a plan to spend more than $25 million on tickets at a dollar each to cover around 99% of number combinations for the draw. This gave the group a very high probability of hitting the jackpot and also of scooping up – or at least sharing – most of the secondary prizes too.
The jackpot had climbed to $95 million after 93 rollovers, making the draw mathematically exploitable to anyone with the resources to purchase nearly every possible number combination.
The scandal caused a political firestorm in Texas and led to the dismantling of the Texas Lottery Commission. Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick called it “the biggest theft from the people of Texas in the history of Texas.”
Grief was accused of enabling the conditions for this to happen. Critics say he bypassed the normal legislative process to change regulations to allow tickets to be bought on cell phones, while courting lottery couriers – businesses that enable the bulk-buying of tickets over the internet.
Insane Logistics
Over roughly 72 hours, the syndicate coordinated several licensed lottery couriers across Texas, deployed dozens of terminals, and used pre-generated QR codes on phones and tablets to print tickets at speeds nearing 100 per second.
Teams worked around the clock in improvised print locations, including a fishing shop and a former dentist’s office, cataloging and boxing millions of tickets as they rolled off the machines.
By the final day, they had produced more than $25 million worth of entries while racing against the draw deadline and simultaneously managing logistics, staffing, hardware, and large-scale data tracking.
‘Loch Ness Monster’ Interviewed
Ranogajec, nicknamed “The Loch Ness Monster” because he is so rarely sighted, has been described as one of the most successful gamblers in the world, said to be worth billions. He is one of the owners of Colossus Bets, a London-based online pool betting operation.
In a rare interview, given to the Sydney Morning Herald in March, Ranogajec admitted to bankrolling the scheme while insisting the syndicate’s activities were entirely legal.
In the aftermath of the controversial Lotto drawing, Gov. Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton each ordered formal investigations into the matter. To date, however, neither office has released any findings or publicly detailed the status of those inquiries.
Nevertheless, Grief’s indictment on serious felony charges – and their as yet unexplained swift dismissal – adds another twist to the saga, according to the Chronicle.
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