AUSTIN (Nexstar) — Within a matter of hours Monday morning, the app Jackpocket was no longer accepting orders after a Texas Lottery Commission policy statement banned all courier services. Now, the app is trying to rally its community to change the lottery commission’s minds.
“It was great,” Blake Cottle, a longtime Jackpocket user, said. Cottle has visual impairment issues that prevents him from driving, making Jackpocket his primary resource to play the Texas Lottery.
“It’s convenient. Instead of having to go down the road or take a bus or something like that, I can just say ‘OK, there’s a big jackpot, let’s play.'”
On Tuesday morning, Jackpocket sent a notification to players in Texas, saying “A new policy is blocking your access to Jackpocket. Show your support and click the card in the app!”
The app then directs users to an email form, which lets users directly email Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick to tell him to unban the couriers. The email also fills the address line with “greg.abbott@gov.texas.gov,” which sends users a delivery failure message.
State Rep. John Bucy III, D-Austin, wrote a scathing letter to the lottery commission for its decision, saying in part, ” To my astonishment, and that of many of my colleagues in the Texas Legislature, the Commission abruptly decided yesterday that it has the power to not only regulate, but to also outlaw lottery courier operations – a complete contradiction of its own actions, testimony, and requests.”
Bucy introduced legislation on Monday to regulate courier services.
On the other side of the aisle, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick slammed the Lottery Commission for taking so long to make the decision.
“I’ve never read so much garbage from a state agency press release in my 18 years in office,” Patrick wrote on X. “Today’s action is an obvious admission that the Texas Lottery Commission had the oversight authority all along and allowed these businesses to creep into Texas and undermine the integrity of the Texas Lottery.”
