FORT WORTH, Texas -- A Pennsylvanian won Wednesday night's $10 million Texas lottery. But he or she may not be able to collect a dime.
Uncertain is whether the state lottery commission will pay the winner because he or she bought the winning ticket through an (( out-of-state lottery service, whose operations violate Texas law, lottery spokesman Steve Levine said Friday.
"A decision would be made by lottery's executive director, legal counsel and, most likely, by the Texas Lottery Commission members themselves," he said.
A New Jersey-based firm called Pic-A-$tate Lottery Service announced Friday that an unidentified customer ordered the winning ticket at a hardware store in Croydon, Pa. The 5-year-old service charges $2 for a $1 ticket. An agent in Houston made the buy.
"I'm absolutely sure Texas will pay," Pic-A-$tate official Ross Walton said. "It was purchased through their legitimate agent in Texas."
Mr. Walton, reached in Croydon, where he was waiting for the winner to come forward, likened his firm to "your Aunt Sally who gets your ticket for you. We are a courier service."
The Texas Lottery has paid jackpots to residents of Louisiana, New Mexico, Arkansas and Mississippi, all of whom personally bought their tickets in Texas, Mr. Levine said. This is the first case in Texas of a winning ticket being commercially bought for someone in a different state, he said.
States have gone both ways on the question of honoring winning tickets purchased out of state, Mr. Levine said. Indiana refused to pay, but Florida paid, awarding a $28 million jackpot to a Pic-A-$tate customer in Pennsylvania last year.
"It is illegal for anyone to sell a Texas Lottery ticket who is not a licensed Texas Lottery ticket retailer," Mr. Levine said. He said that the commission had taken legal moves against a New Mexico man and an Illinois man to stop the interstate trade in Texas tickets and that it might try to prosecute Pic-A-$tate.