A woman won £70 million on the lottery, but is yet to receive a single penny of her huge prize fund. The woman is now taking her state lottery commission to court, claiming they are treating her like a “bad guy”. The winner, from Texas in the USA, thought she had won the massive jackpot in February.

She used a third-party courier app called Jackpot to buy the ticket. According to PEOPLE magazine, the app lets users play their state lottery from their mobile phone.

And while officials in Texas confirmed the woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, won the money, they have now opened an investigation into the victory. It comes as they consider banning third-party apps.

The woman has now filed a lawsuit against Sergio Rey in his official capacity as acting deputy executive director of the Texas Lottery Commission. The woman told Nexster she felt like she was being treated “like the bad guy”.

She insists she has done nothing wrong. Lawmakers in Texas however claim the couriers are not legal and are currently proposing a law that would remove the licence from shops using them.

The woman’s attorney, Randy Howry, told KXAN that he too feels she did nothing wrong. He said: “We played by all the rules, and we’re still playing by all the rules and we expect that my client should be paid.”

The app the woman used is reportedly a subsidiary of sports betting company DraftKings, which also owns the Winner’s Corner store located in North Austin, where the winning ticket was purchased. Following the win, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick shared a video on social media from the shop.

In it, a worker claims someone purchased a winning lottery ticket from the store. "The bottom line is, if people are going to have confidence in the lottery, we have to be sure that no one has an advantage,” Patrick claimed.

He claimed that using courier services is “not the way the lottery was designed to operate”. Patrick instead claimed people should have to visit the store and pick their numbers in the lottery terminals.

The woman is understood to have bought around $20 - £14.80 - worth of lottery tickets. Her lawsuit claims she is among thousands of Texans who use the Jackpot app to buy lottery tickets.

Howry, Breen & Herman, LLP, is acting in the lawsuit on behalf of the woman. “It shouldn't take a lawsuit to get paid when you win the lottery,” the complaint, obtained by People, read. “But that's exactly what has happened here.”

It added: “Because the Texas Lottery has not acted with integrity, has not acted with responsibility, and has not paid Ms. Doe as the rightful and undisputed winner, she had to bring this lawsuit to get paid as the undisputed winner of the $83,500,000.00.”

State Governor Greg Abbott has ordered officials to investigate the woman’s win as well as another jackpot claim. On April 22, 2023, someone reportedly won a $95 million prize - around £70 million - by spending $25 million - roughly £18.5 million - to buy every number combination.

The money was won by Rook TX, of Scotch Plains, New Jersey, a business entity. It ended up claiming the cash sum, reports the New York Times.