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The Texas Lottery Commission’s Executive Director said Monday he does not believe third-party lottery games services known as couriers are legal under state law, a switch from the commission’s years-long claim it had no control over the practice.

Since 2016, the commission has maintained to retailers and lawmakers it did not have the authority to regulate couriers, third-party services allowing customers to buy lottery tickets remotely. But in a policy statement on Monday, the commission said it now views the practice as illegal and will revoke the lottery license of any stores who sell tickets to a courier. The shift comes just days after one of the commissioners resigned and as legislators are publicly expressing their own interest in banning the practice.

Executive Director Ryan Mindell said in a statement the commission’s new crack down on the services comes after a review of state law and information from “retailer investigations.”

“Lottery courier services operating in Texas have been a significant concern for many of our stakeholders,” Mindell said in the Monday statement. “Since I became executive director less than a year ago, I have been keenly focused on making changes to improve the public’s perception of Texas Lottery games and how they are played and operated.”

Criticism of the lottery commission has not slowed in light of the new guidance, including from Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who personally investigated the $83.5 million jackpot won earlier this month through a ticket sold by a courier. Patrick said the new changes would not end his office’s investigation or the Senate seeking a law banning couriers outright and were emblematic of the commission’s previous inaction.

“Today’s action is an obvious admission that the Texas Lottery Commission had the oversight authority all along and allowed these businesses to creep into Texas and undermine the integrity of the Texas Lottery,” Patrick said in a Monday post on X about the commission’s new guidelines.

State law requires lottery tickets to be bought in person, but couriers circumvent this process by having customers pay them to buy and send a picture of the tickets, creating a remote option for play. Couriers cannot be directly licensed to sell tickets, but most are also partnered with brick-and-mortar stores who are licensed, and in some cases are owned by the same entities and operate in the same building.

The commission’s guidance outlined 13 different provisions of state law they believe couriers circumvent, including bans on sales to minors and lottery officials as well as restrictions on influencing a drawing’s outcome. The commission also requested an opinion from the Attorney General’s office on Feb. 14 to determine their level of authority over couriers. It said official rules banning the use of couriers would be adopted by April.

In the Legislature, Senate Bill 28 was co-authored by a majority of the Texas Senate and seeks to ban couriers. The bill will be heard at a State Affairs Committee meeting at 2:00 p.m. Monday.

Rep. John Bucy III, D-Austin, also filed a bill Friday in the House which would create a state licensing system for couriers. While 18 states have laws regulating couriers, only three have courier licensing programs. The Coalition of Texas Lottery Couriers, who represent the three largest couriers in Texas, said they would work with Bucy and others to find ways to responsibly implement the practice. Couriers contribute over $173 million in lottery ticket sales, according to a Legislative Budget Board estimate.

“Today’s decision by the TLC to ban lottery courier services is abrupt, disappointing and unnecessary,” a spokesperson with the coalition said in a statement. “We will continue to encourage a regulatory solution, such as the one proposed by HB 3201, which allows our millions of Texas customers to continue to safely and conveniently order lottery tickets using our services.”

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