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Lottery courier services, or lottery couriers, are third-party companies that purchase lottery tickets on behalf of their patrons at licensed lottery retailers. This process requires the courier company to have an employee within the jurisdiction to make an in-person purchase. The lottery courier scans and uploads the ticket(s) into the patron account, where it is held thereafter. 

Lottery couriers are regulated in only two states – New Jersey and New York – subject to licensure and/or registration as well as regulatory requirements including age and location restrictions, promotion and advertising restrictions, and responsible gaming requirements such as self-exclusion.

Some 40 states plus the District of Columbia do not have state laws or regulations that expressly permit or prohibit lottery courier services. However, it is sometimes the case that lottery couriers operate in a state in the absence of formal regulation.

In a sector that is typically relatively quiet compared to iGaming and sports betting, recent developments suggest that regulators and state attorneys general are taking a closer look at lottery courier operations and whether such operations are legal or authorized under existing state law. In this blog, we take a look at the developments unfolding for lottery courier services in the United States.

What's the State of Regulatory Activity for Lottery Courier Services Across the US?

There have been some recent regulatory and enforcement developments for lottery courier services, including:

• A bill to ban lottery courier services in Texas was unanimously passed by the Senate on February 27, 2025 and later referred to the House on March 4. A contrasting bill was filed in the House on February 21 and referred to a House committee on March 20. HB 3201 would instead regulate lottery couriers, subject to oversight and licensure by the Texas Lottery Commission. 
• Meanwhile, on February 24, the Texas Lottery Commission issued a policy statement on lottery ticket courier services, stating that the commission believes couriers are not legal under Texas law and advising the public that under the State Lottery Act, it would exercise its discretionary authority to prohibit lottery ticket courier services “to promote and ensure integrity, security, honesty, and fairness in the operation and administration of the Texas Lottery”. Furthermore, the Texas Lottery Commission “will exercise its discretion under the SLA [State Lottery Act] to take all appropriate action to stop this activity from occurring, including identifying and investigating any licensed lottery retailer suspected of working in concert with a courier and initiating an enforcement action to revoke the retailer’s sales agent license”. During a commission meeting on Mar. 4, rules to prohibit lottery courier services within the state were discussed. The rules now have to go through a 30-day public comment period.

• On April 17, 2024, the South Carolina attorney general issued an opinion on whether a lottery ticket delivery service may operate legally in the state. The opinion found that the legality of lottery courier services is a matter for the South Carolina Lottery Commission to determine, as well as a matter for either the General Assembly or Lottery Commission to address. The opinion concluded: “This Office cannot make such a factual determination in an opinion. The Commission would also adjudge whether a lottery courier service is consistent with the Act’s purpose. In other words, any opinion by this Office as to whether a lottery courier service may operate in South Carolina would, in effect, supersede the Lottery Commission’s regulatory authority under the Act.”

• A Mississippi attorney general opinion dated February 8, 2024 determined that there is currently nothing in the state lottery law that authorizes the use of lottery couriers in Mississippi, and that lottery couriers do not qualify as lottery retailers under the law, and, thus, are not authorized to sell lottery tickets to the public. The opinion concluded that the “sale of lottery tickets by either a lottery retailer or a lottery courier using a computer, tablet, or smartphone would violate the prohibition against selling lottery tickets by any method involving a ‘any personal computer, tablet, smartphone, mobile device or other similar equipment or type of device’ in Section 27-115-17(2)(d) [of the Mississippi Code].”

• In December 2024, the Florida Lottery announced it had shut down The Lotter, an unauthorized online courier service, for allegedly unlawfully selling Florida Lottery tickets to consumers. “The Lotter, which operated in conjunction with lottery retailer ZaZa Accessories and illegally acted as an intermediary for purchasing lottery tickets, was discovered through routine monitoring and enforcement efforts [...] The Florida Lottery encourages players to purchase tickets only through authorized retailers. Using unauthorized third-party services to buy lottery tickets is illegal and poses significant risks, including fraud, misrepresentation, and the potential loss of winnings.”

This is just a glimpse of what's inside our latest U.S. Regulatory Review: Lottery Couriers, which examines lottery courier services in the United States and provides an overview of the applicable regulatory framework in states where lottery courier services are explicitly regulated and subject to licensing conditions. 91����ԭ�� subscribers can read the full report.

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