How Australian gamblers took down the Texas lottery for $US95 million
No one had won the Texas state lottery in a long time. The state’s lieutenant-governor has called the lottery strike “the biggest theft from the people of Texas in the history of Texas”. One, in a previous life, dated supermodel Miranda Kerr and spent time in a NSW jail for fraud. “We’re a group of mathematicians who look for opportunities to make money.” To help put the Texas play in motion, he turned to some fellow Australians. “I think Texas is the only time we’ve bought almost every ticket,” Marantelli says.
Something unusual has happened in racing. Punters keep winning
The $US95 million ($141 million) jackpot was theirs to lose. His team had bought more than 25 million tickets, which now filled the cardboard boxes stacked high against the hotel room wall. It was just after 10pm on a Saturday, April 22, 2023, and the room was so packed that people could barely move, Marantelli remembers.
The Texas Lottery Commission had signed off on its licence renewal and approved 10 new terminals to be sent to the business. The licence to sell lottery tickets in Texas lapsed. The company also overstated its revenue by $US52 million. He was frustrated that the idea kept resurfacing, even as the company struggled to survive. In his eyes, the company was meant to focus on everyday lottery customers, not “rich jackasses trying to game the system, doing Hail Mary events once in a blue moon”. At one retailer, a fishing tourism business in the suburbs of Fort Worth, two ticket terminals sat out the front amid the lures, souvenirs and beer coolers.
Horse Racing Tips: NSW Sunday 26th April 2026
Best Bet Scialla (Rockhampton Race 3 No. 5) Nice filly who won over 1200m here last start (at only her 2nd start) and will carry less weight here. Key Comments The track is rated soft and the rail is +6 metres the entire course. Best Bet Leliyn (Gawler Race 3 No. 2) Last-start winner of a Balaklava maiden and was scratched from a winnable race at Murray Bridge on Wednesday to run here. Key Comments The track is rated soft and the rail is in the true position. The track is rated soft and the rail is +5 metres the entire circuit.
- Best Bet Self Serve (Darwin Race 4 No. 1) Former Victorian having her first start for her new trainer.
- Best Bet Leliyn (Gawler Race 3 No. 2) Last-start winner of a Balaklava maiden and was scratched from a winnable race at Murray Bridge on Wednesday to run here.
- Key Comments The track is in the soft range.
- Bernard Marantelli has for the past few decades outsmarted many in the wagering industry, including US authorities after he won a $95 million lottery jackpot.
He threw a party for some of the store owners at a sports bar, even though he failed to win the draw. Over two weeks, they bought Quick Pick tickets from convenience stores, carrying up to $US20,000 cash in cloth bags. They collected the prize via Rook TX, a company set up in Delaware where information about company directors and owners is kept https://artsaccessaustralia.org/ secret. She posted on her website that the jackpot would be won that Saturday night.
The article previously said “After the company’s chief executive received the video as an update”… The numbers drawn were beyond his control. “They wouldn’t be anywhere saying ‘you know I think we should donate the money back to these guys because they shouldn’t have really been allowed to play that way’.” The commission had also approved an unusually large number of terminals to be sent to Lottery.com and its related business, which were not brick-and-mortar stores open to the public. The Fort Worth fishing business that printed the winning ticket later explained to commission investigators how the store had used phones preloaded with QR codes to enter the bets.