More than 7 million lottery players in Texas will be indirectly affected by an opinion likely to be issued by the Texas Supreme Court. The appellate case pending before the Court is GTECH Corporation v. James Steele, et al, Case No. 18-0159.
At issue in the GTECH case is whether the private contract operator of the Texas Lottery is immune from suit for fraud. The plaintiffs in the case contend that GTECH (d/b/a IGT) chose to use misleading and fraudulent language when it submitted the Fun 5’s scratch-off game to the Texas Lottery Commission. Over 1,000 lottery players were led to believe they would win a prize if their tickets revealed a Money Bag symbol. In fact, only a small percentage of those tickets were designed to be winners.
GTECH argued that it cannot be sued for fraud in the Austin trial court. The trial court rejected that argument and GTECH lost its appeal in the Austin Court of Appeals. Now the Supreme Court is being asked by GTECH to reverse the Court of Appeals and to rule that GTECH can’t be sued even if it commits fraud on Texas Lottery players.
The Supreme Court typically issues its opinions on Fridays and usually issues opinions on all cases pending before it by the end of June before Summer vacation. That means the 1,000 plus lottery players directly affected by the opinion and the 7 million lottery players who will be indirectly affected by it will hopefully soon hear the Court’s opinion on the matter. You can follow the court’s opinions each Friday by going to the Supreme Court Orders & Opinions webpage or by checking this blog page on a weekly basis. We will post the opinion here as soon as it is received.