Gary Grief, former executive director of the now-dissolved Texas Lottery Commission, is alleged to have used his position to defraud the state during a 2023 Lotto Texas drawing.
Gary Grief, former executive director of the Texas Lottery Commission, was reindicted by a Travis County grand jury after a previous indictment was dismissed by an assistant district attorney in mid-April.
The new indictment is identical to the previous one, court records show, and alleges Grief misused his office to defraud the state during the Lotto Texas drawing on April 22, 2023, a first-degree felony. A court summons was also issued Wednesday.
The 2023 Lotto drawing drew scrutiny after a group led by an international gambler used several lottery ticket printers to buy almost all of the 25 million possible ticket combinations to win the $95 million jackpot, a Houston Chronicle investigation revealed. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said the jackpot was “stolen” from Texans, investigations followed and the Texas Lottery Commission was ultimately dissolved, its duties transferred to another state agency.
The Texas Lottery Commission was named in a second indictment also alleging abuse of official capacity related to the 2023 drawing. The now-replaced agency was accused of fraudulently misusing government property and services via actions “authorized, requested, performed or recklessly tolerated” by Grief and two other commission officials.
The grand jury records, obtained by several members of the media, were later sealed from public view, a court clerk confirmed.
In a written statement to the Houston Chronicle, Sam Bassett, Grief’s attorney, called the indictment “the product of politics, not facts demonstrating a crime.”
“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,” Bassett said. “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.”
The Travis County district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Grief resigned from the lottery in February 2024 before scrutiny over the jackpot had mounted.
Source: Ayden Runnels,
Photo Credit: Texas Lottery cards at a 7-Eleven in Central Austin on Feb. 20, 2025. Leila Saidane for The Texas Tribune
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