Ryan Mindel, executive director of the Texas Lottery Committee, resigned immediately, a release from the agency said Monday.
“Ryan Mindel has notified his resignation committee to the Texas Lottery Committee, valid today on April 21st,” agency chair Robert Rivera said in a statement.
Rivera said the agency’s chief financial officer, Sergio Ray, will become the acting assistant executive director of the Texas Lottery after Mindel’s resignation.
The board said it will consider the process of selecting a new executive director at its next meeting. This is set for April 29th.
Rivera’s statement did not state why Mindel filed his resignation.
After Gary Grie resigned in April 2024, Mindel took over as executive director. Mindel and Sadness were criticized after purchasing an increase in third-party lottery ticket couriers and every possible ticket combination to win a $95 million jackpot in 2023. It has been reported.
His resignation comes the day after the New York Times Report released Find out how state officials invited 2023 rigging. In its report, The Times noted that Gov. Greg Abbott (R) and the Texas Rangers are investigating, and that both the Capitol and the Senate are investigating the issue, along with media coverage on the issue.
British bookmaker Colossus Bets has worked with Lottery.com and two companies to buy all the combinations of the 2023 jackpot and confirm they will win. But they were able to do that. The Times reported that lottery officials looked in the opposite direction in the case of violations.
The Capitol budget passed the lottery committee’s funds with zero for the two-year spending cycle that begins in September.
For a lottery company that brings $2 billion a year to the state Treasury, the House budget could mean it will go out of business later this year. It has been reported.
Most of the funds raised by the lottery go to public schools, but when lawmakers set the budget, funding for the Foundation School Fund was fixed, no matter how well the lottery was functioning, the outlet noted.
