A Travis County Grand Jury Indicted the Former Texas Lottery Boss Twice.
The DA Dropped It the First Time in Three Days.
The April 22, 2023 Lotto Texas drawing was rigged. A London-backed syndicate trading as Rook TX — bankrolled by an owner of the British pool-betting firm Colossus Bets — allegedly used lottery-courier-controlled retail terminals across four Texas locations to print nearly all of the roughly 26 million possible six-number combinations for about $26,000,000 and guarantee itself the $95,000,000 jackpot.
Three years later, on April 14, 2026, a Travis County grand jury indicted the former Texas Lottery Commission executive director Gary Grief for abuse of official capacity, a first-degree felony under Texas Penal Code § 39.02. Three days later, on April 17, an assistant district attorney from the office of Travis County DA José Garza (D-TX)— one of the most prominent progressive prosecutors in Texas — moved to dismiss the indictment, citing “prosecutorial discretion.” The court granted the motion the same day. The public explanation was, per the docket, minimal.
On May 14, 2026, a fresh Travis County grand jury returned an identical re-indictment of Grief, separately indicted the Texas Lottery Commission itself as a co-defendant entity, and named two more TLC officials — Ed Rogers and Clay Kidd — as “managerial agents” in the charging document. Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) called the original dismissal “incomprehensible.” Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R-TX) called the rigged drawing itself “stolen” from Texans. Grief’s first court date is set for June 26, 2026. He has entered no plea and is presumed innocent unless and until the state proves its case at trial.
- $95,000,000jackpotLotto Texas drawing of April 22, 2023 — alleged rigged
- ~26Mcombinationsbought by Rook TX syndicate for ~$26,000,000
- 3daysbetween indictment #1 and DA dismissal — Travis County, April 14 → April 17
- 1monthto re-indictment — same court, same defendant, same charge — May 14, 2026
Lotto Texas draws six numbers from a field of 1 to 54. The total number of possible combinations is approximately 25.8 million. At roughly one dollar per ticket combination, a buyer with enough operational capacity could, in theory, buy every combination and guarantee a win — provided the jackpot exceeded the buy-in and no one else also held the winning ticket.
That is, according to the indictment and the Houston Chronicle reporting that preceded it, exactly what happened on the April 22, 2023 Lotto Texas drawing. The buyer was a single entity, Rook TX, bankrolled by an owner of the London-based pool-betting firm Colossus Bets. Rook TX did not walk into a single store and ask a clerk for 26 million tickets. Instead, the grand jury found, it routed its purchases through Texas’s lottery-courier industry — third-party services that buy lottery tickets on behalf of customers from retail terminals. Across four locations, courier-aligned retailers ran specialized printing terminals around the clock in the days before the drawing to issue tickets covering nearly every possible combination.
When the numbers came up, exactly one ticket matched. The $95,000,000 jackpot — advertised as a public-good revenue stream for Texas schools and veterans — was paid out to Rook TX. The math was clean: spend about $26,000,000 to buy nearly every combination, win $95,000,000, net roughly $69,000,000 before tax.
The Texas Lottery Commission was not the buyer. The state of Texas was not the buyer. The buyer was a private syndicate. So why charge a state agency director?
The Travis County indictment alleges that the Texas Lottery Commission, under defendant Gary Grief, knowingly enabled the bulk-purchase mechanism. Specifically, the grand jury found that TLC delivered extra ticket-printing terminalsto retailers aligned with the courier services in the days immediately before the April 22, 2023 drawing — the operational hardware necessary to physically print 26 million tickets in time for the draw. According to the indictment, this was not a clerical accident; it was, the grand jury charges, an official act outside the agency’s lawful scope and to the substantial benefit of a private buyer.
The charge: abuse of official capacity, a first-degree felony under Texas Penal Code § 39.02. The felony tier triggers at a value of $300,000 or more, a threshold the $95,000,000 jackpot exceeds by a factor of more than 300. The May 14 re-indictment names not only Grief but also two TLC officials — Ed Rogers and Clay Kidd — as “managerial agents” of the agency. The TLC entity itself is separately indicted as a co-defendant. Grief’s successor, Ryan Mindell, is not charged.
Abuse of official capacity (first-degree felony tier): a public servant, with intent to obtain a benefit or with intent to harm or defraud another, commits an act relating to the servant’s office that the servant knows is unlawful, when the value of the benefit gained or harm caused is $300,000 or more.
The indictment alleges Grief authorized the delivery of additional ticket-printing terminals to courier-aligned retailers, knowing those terminals would be used to print tickets covering nearly every possible Lotto Texas combination for a single private buyer.
Presumption of innocence applies. An indictment is a charging document, not a conviction. The grand jury found probable cause; the state must still prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt at trial.
April 14, 2026.A Travis County grand jury returns the first indictment against Gary Grief for abuse of official capacity. The case is filed; the docket is opened; Texas Rangers, who conducted the underlying investigation, are on record. The first reporting reaches the public through Texas Scorecard’s Brandon Waltens.
April 17, 2026 — three days later. Assistant District Attorney Rob Drummond, of the Travis County District Attorney’s office, files a motion to dismiss the indictment. The stated grounds: “prosecutorial discretion.” The motion is granted the same day. No public explanation accompanies the filing. No statement is issued by Travis County DA José Garza (D-TX). On the FOX 7 Austin cameras, Garza later tells a reporter:
“We unfortunately are in a position right now where we're not legally permitted to talk about this, but I think we will be very soon.”
Travis County DA José Garza (D-TX) · on-camera to FOX 7 Austin · May 14, 2026
May 14, 2026 — one month later.A fresh Travis County grand jury returns an identical re-indictment. This is not a federal “superseding indictment” — it’s a state-procedure re-indictment, the term Texas courts use when a dismissed grand-jury charge is brought again before a new panel. The second indictment adds the Texas Lottery Commission as a separately indicted co-defendant and names Ed Rogers and Clay Kidd as managerial agents.
What happened in the intervening 27 days, and why the same office that dismissed the first indictment let a second one proceed, is the open question on the public record. Garza’s on-camera statement — that his office is “not legally permitted to talk about this” — is the most his office has said. Grand-jury proceedings in Texas are sealed by statute.
The May 14 re-indictment fills in the chart:
Gary Grief — defendant. Joined the Texas Lottery Commission in 2002; named Executive Director in 2010; resigned February 2024. Charged with abuse of official capacity, a first-degree felony. Represented by attorney Sam Bassett. Presumed innocent.
Texas Lottery Commission — separately indicted co-defendant entity. The agency itself, not just its director, faces a charging instrument.
Ed Rogers and Clay Kidd — named in the indictment as “managerial agents” of TLC. Their roles inside the agency at the time of the alleged conduct have not been fully detailed in the public docket.
Ryan Mindell — Grief’s successor as TLC executive director, named in early 2024. Not charged in either the April or May indictments.
The Texas Lottery Commissioners — the appointed board that nominally oversaw the agency. The commissioners during the April 2023 drawing served at the appointment of Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX). No commissioner has been charged.
Rook TX / Colossus Bets — the syndicate that won the $95,000,000 jackpot, and the British pool-betting firm whose ownership reportedly bankrolled it, are not named as defendants in this Texas state case. Whether any federal or state action follows against the buyer is, as of publication, not on the public record.
This case sits at an unusual political intersection. Both major-party angles are real, both are documented, and the site editorial mission demands naming each of them with the same rigor.
The agency was a Republican-administration agency. The Texas Lottery Commission operated under commissioners appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX)throughout the period the grand jury examined. Gary Grief served as executive director under those commissioners. When the rigged drawing came under public scrutiny in 2024 — following the Houston Chronicle investigation that walked through the bulk-purchase mechanics — the political response from Texas Republicans was not to defend the agency. It was to dismantle it.
“The dismissal of the indictment of Gary Grief is incomprehensible.”
Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) · reacting to the April 17 Travis County dismissal · paraphrase based on on-record statement
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R-TX) led the legislative response, describing the rigged jackpot as “stolen” from Texas players. Patrick’s SB 28 banned online lottery-courier ticket sales — the conduit the grand jury identifies as the operational backbone of the alleged scheme. SB 3070, also driven by the Senate, abolished the Texas Lottery Commission outright. Abbott signed both bills on June 20, 2025. The TLC formally ceased to exist on September 1, 2025, with its remaining lottery-oversight duties transferred to the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation.
The secondary angle is the dismissal. The April 17, 2026 motion to dismiss did not come from Abbott’s office, the Texas Attorney General, or any Republican-aligned actor. It came from the office of Travis County DA José Garza (D-TX), one of the most prominent progressive prosecutors in the state. Garza was first elected in 2020 on a platform that included declining to prosecute certain low-level offenses and pursuing police-accountability cases; he was re-elected in November 2024. The motion was filed by ADA Rob Drummond, of Garza’s office. Whether the dismissal was a discretionary judgment about the evidence, a procedural reset, or something else, the office has not publicly explained — and grand-jury secrecy rules prevent it from explaining freely. What is on the record is that the same office let the second grand jury proceed to an identical re-indictment one month later.
Frame one: A Republican-appointed Texas agency under a Republican governor allegedly enabled a private syndicate to rig a state-run lottery for a $95,000,000 payday. The Republican legislature’s response was to abolish the agency, sign Patrick’s courier ban, and demand accountability. Abbott called the dismissal of the first indictment “incomprehensible.”
Frame two: A Democratic-elected progressive district attorney’s office in Travis County moved to dismiss the first indictment three days after it was returned, citing “prosecutorial discretion” with no public explanation. A new grand jury then re-indicted the same defendant on the same charge one month later.
Both are true. Neither cancels the other. Readers can weigh them.
Grief’s attorney Sam Bassettissued a public statement after the May 14 re-indictment. The defense is rejecting the case on three lines: that the prosecution is politically driven, that Grief cooperated with the underlying Texas Ranger investigation, and that Grief’s record at TLC produced billions for schools and veterans.
“The indictment returned by the Travis County Grand Jury is the product of politics, not facts demonstrating a crime.”
Sam Bassett, defense attorney for Gary Grief · May 14, 2026
“Gary cooperated with the Texas Ranger investigation, but neither he nor his counsel had input with the Grand Jury. The Rangers had their direction from politicians searching for a scapegoat.”
Sam Bassett, defense attorney for Gary Grief · May 14, 2026
“When all facts are revealed in court, the public will see that Gary's leadership at the Lottery Commission generated millions of dollars for Texas schools and veterans and there was no crime.”
Sam Bassett, defense attorney for Gary Grief · May 14, 2026
The dollar figures matter because they are the public-trust frame around the case. The Texas Lottery is not a private game; it is a state-run revenue stream, and a sizable share of the proceeds flows directly to public-school funding through the Foundation School Fund.
In FY2023 alone, the Texas Lottery Commission delivered roughly $2,100,000,000 to the Foundation School Fund — about 24.5% of TLC revenue. Cumulative contributions since 1997 stand near $31,800,000,000. The defense will argue that math goes in Grief’s ledger. The prosecution will argue the math is the public-trust frame: a state-run revenue stream that funds classrooms is not a private business that can be quietly rigged for one private buyer.
Independent of the criminal case, the Texas Legislature already moved on the structural side. Two bills, two signatures, one abolished agency.
Cleared the Senate: May 25, 2025.
Signed by Abbott: June 20, 2025.
Effective: September 1, 2025 — the Texas Lottery Commission ceased to exist as a stand-alone agency. Remaining lottery-oversight duties were transferred to the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR).
Authority: Texas Tribune, June 25, 2025 reporting on SB 3070’s passage and the courier restrictions package.
Lead author: Sen. Bob Hall (R-TX), at the direction of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R-TX).
Signed by Abbott: June 20, 2025 (same day as SB 3070).
What it does: bans online lottery-courier services in Texas — the conduit the Travis County grand jury identifies as central to the alleged April 22, 2023 scheme.
Effect on this case: SB 28 does not change the criminal exposure for conduct that occurred in 2023; it removes the operational mechanism going forward.
KXAN Austin’s May 14 broadcast walks through the re-indictment timeline and DA Garza’s on-camera statement to FOX 7. X coverage from the Texas Tribune, Texas Scorecard, and Gov. Abbott’s official account documents the political reaction in real time. Truth Social entries below are paraphrased — no verified Trump or Texas GOP post on this specific state case surfaced in research, so the cards reproduce the substance of on-record reactions from Abbott and Patrick rather than fabricated post text.
A Travis County grand jury has re-indicted former Texas Lottery executive director Gary Grief, one month after the DA's office dismissed the first indictment. The TLC itself was separately indicted as a co-defendant.
EXCLUSIVE: Former Texas Lottery Director Gary Grief was indicted by a Travis County grand jury on April 14 — and quietly cleared three days later by DA José Garza's office. The motion to dismiss cites only 'prosecutorial discretion.'
The dismissal of the indictment of the former Texas Lottery executive director is incomprehensible. Texans were cheated. We abolished the Lottery Commission for a reason.
The dismissal of the indictment of the former Texas Lottery boss is incomprehensible — Texans were cheated and accountability cannot be dropped after three days behind a closed-door motion.
Paraphrased commentary · not a verbatim post
Paraphrase of Gov. Abbott's on-record 'incomprehensible' reaction to the April 17 Travis County dismissal.
The $95 million Lotto Texas jackpot was stolen from Texans through a courier scheme the Lottery Commission was supposed to stop. That is why we abolished the agency and banned online couriers — and why every official involved needs to face a jury.
Paraphrased commentary · not a verbatim post
Paraphrase of Lt. Gov. Patrick's repeated on-record framing of the rigged drawing as 'stolen' from Texans.
2002. Gary Grief joins the Texas Lottery Commission.
2010. Grief named TLC Executive Director.
April 22, 2023. Lotto Texas drawing. Rook TX wins $95,000,000 jackpot after allegedly buying nearly every possible combination.
2023–2024. Houston Chronicle investigation surfaces the bulk-purchase mechanics.
February 2024. Grief resigns from TLC.
Early 2024. Ryan Mindell named successor as Executive Director (not charged).
May 25, 2025. Texas Legislature clears SB 3070 abolishing TLC.
June 20, 2025. Gov. Abbott signs SB 3070 and SB 28 (Patrick / Hall courier ban).
September 1, 2025. Texas Lottery Commission formally abolished; duties transferred to TDLR.
April 14, 2026. Travis County grand jury indicts Grief (abuse of official capacity, first-degree felony).
April 17, 2026. ADA Rob Drummond moves to dismiss; Travis County court grants dismissal same day, citing “prosecutorial discretion.”
May 14, 2026. Fresh Travis County grand jury returns identical re-indictment; TLC entity separately indicted; Ed Rogers and Clay Kidd named as managerial agents.
May 15, 2026. Breitbart Texas, Texas Tribune, KXAN, FOX 7 Austin and KVUE file lead coverage.
June 26, 2026. First scheduled court date for Gary Grief.
A $95,000,000jackpot. A state agency the legislature dissolved on the way to the courthouse. A Republican-appointed director the grand jury says enabled it. A Democratic district attorney whose office let the first indictment die in three days — and then watched a second grand jury return the same charge a month later. Grief is presumed innocent. The state still has to prove its case. But the political geography of this one is documented on both sides of the aisle, and it goes in front of a Travis County judge on June 26.