The Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas is speaking out against the growth of online lottery services in the state, claiming it constitutes an unlawful expansion of gambling and demanding legislative action. The tribe, which operates the Lucky Eagle Casino Hotel in Eagle Pass, Texas, insists that these lottery courier services are damaging their financial stability.
In a letter addressed to the Senate State Affairs committee last month, Kickapoo general counsel Jason C. Nelson expressed concerns that the courier services are “directly and adversely” affecting the tribe’s revenues by enabling otherwise unlawful internet gaming and creating online experiences that simulate real-time games of chance.
The Lucky Eagle Casino Hotel, located on the tribe’s reservation by the Rio Grande, offers class II gaming, such as electronic bingo machines and poker. Nelson criticized lottery courier services for not merely acting as delivery agents for lottery tickets purchased from brick-and-mortar retailers. Instead, he argued, they provide full-fledged gaming experiences online that circumvent the state’s ban on internet gaming. Each purchase of a lottery ticket, he noted, is effectively the placement of a bet, and each lottery drawing is the outcome of that bet, amounting to an express attempt to bypass the state’s laws.
Contrary to a report by the rightwing news site The Texas Scorecard, Nelson did not threaten to push for class III gaming, which includes Las Vegas-style slots and table games unless the legislature bans lottery courier services. The tribe has made no reference to any immediate plans for class III gaming expansion, which under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA), requires negotiating a compact with the state and securing federal approval.
Although the tribe has sought class III gaming in the past, those efforts have been consistently resisted by the state. The current issue has brought heightened attention to lottery couriers in Texas, particularly after a gambling syndicate used affiliated state-licensed retail outlets to amass 25.8 million lottery tickets for the April 22, 2023, Texas Lottery draw. This array of purchases, in contrast to the 1-2 million tickets usually sold weekly, led to the syndicate winning the jackpot and all secondary prizes, totaling $95 million before taxes.
While Texas law bans the sale of lottery tickets by telephone and renders online gambling illegal, lottery couriers argue that their operations fit within a legal loophole, as they claim to merely offer a delivery service for lottery tickets. The Kickapoo dispute this claim, insisting that the couriers’ services represent a clear violation of the state’s gambling laws.
