A global team of betting whizzes hatched a scheme to take down the Texas Lottery. The plan was led by a London banker-turned-bookmaker and a mysterious professional gambler nicknamed ‘The Joker.’ The duo partnered with a Texas company and local retailers to print more than 99% of all the lottery tickets sold. And the jackpot was worth almost $100 million. The WSJ’s Brad Reagan explains how they pulled off the heist. Jessica Mendoza hosts. Further Listening: - How an Antiques Dealer Uncovered a Massive Museum Heist - Inside an iPhone Heist - How Investigators Cracked a $3.4 Billion Crypto Heist - Six Days of Chaos at MGM’s Casinos Sign up for WSJ’s free What’s News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Full Episode
Our colleague Brad Reagan grew up in Texas.
I live in London now, but I'm originally from Texas. My family's still in Texas. All my friends, or not all my friends, but a lot of my friends are in Texas.
Brad tracks the news in his home state. And recently, a story caught his eye. A heist story. Yeah, we love a heist story, especially here at the Journal podcast. We love it.
Heist stories are my favorite stories. That's exactly how we were looking at this from the beginning.
And this heist story involved a lottery, the Texas lottery. Specifically, a drawing that happened in the spring of 2023.
Get ready to play the Games of Texas for Saturday, April 22nd. On the night of the drawing, they do it a little bit after 10 o'clock and it's kind of looks like almost like a cable access show. Tonight's Lotto Texas jackpot is an estimated $95 million. 52. And the drama kind of builds and it's like, one number. And the second number is... 30.
Two numbers, three numbers. That third number is... Five. And then eventually you've got all six numbers there. 52, 30, 5, 18, 29, and the sixth and final number, three.
But for almost two months, the jackpot, almost $100 million, went unclaimed.
And then this lawyer out of New Jersey files a claim for the jackpot on behalf of his client. that is described as Rook TX. And according to Texas lottery rules, the winner has asked to remain anonymous, which is acceptable. And so this lawyer says, here's the winning ticket. My client wants to remain anonymous. Texas lottery says, great, here's your money.
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