How the Idaho Lottery Was Gamed for $1.6M by Shadowy Syndicate That Denied Idahoans Prizes

Posted on: February 24, 2026, 02:44h. 

Last updated on: February 24, 2026, 02:44h.

• Out-of-state syndicate spent $1M to win $1.6M
• Record Idaho Cash jackpot tied to mass buying strategy
• Lawmakers move to ban bulk lottery ticket purchases

The Idaho lottery was gamed last year for $1.6 million by an out-of-state lottery syndicate that likely bought up nearly all the possible number combinations, according to a state lawmaker who sponsored legislation to prevent it from happening again.

During a two-week period last year, the syndicate spent a little over a million dollars on tickets to win $1.6 million, State Senator Jim Guthrie (R-28th Dist) told fellow lawmakers Monday. He added the scheme denied ordinary Idahoans a meaningful chance at the prizes.

The Idaho Senate subsequently sent a bill to the desk of Governor Brad Little (R) that would prohibit what it defines as “bulk purchase transactions” of Idaho Lottery tickets.

Eyes on September 30 Draw

Neither the syndicate’s win nor the methods it used have previously been reported until now. The only public acknowledgment came in an oblique statement from the lottery that the largest Idaho Cash jackpot in state history was claimed by an “out-of-state syndicate,” Mudspell Pizza, LLC.

That’s because a syndicate that held nearly all the possible number combinations would also win almost all the secondary prizes too.

Meanwhile, there was reporting at the time that the Idaho Lottery had warned retailers about potential bulk buying as the Idaho Cash jackpot climbed to its record high, strongly suggesting a spike in ticket sales or unusual purchasing activity.

How Lottery Syndicates Operate

Lottery syndicates quietly watch for what they consider “positive expectation” moments –  rare stretches when the math tilts in their favor.

Simply put: wait for a game with relatively few possible number combinations, let the jackpot roll over until it climbs well beyond its statistical average, then deploy enough capital to cover most – or all – of the possible outcomes.

The Idaho Cash draw game is structurally simple: players pick five numbers from 1 to 45. That produces just 1,221,759 possible combinations –  tiny when compared with multi-state games like Powerball or Mega Millions. But, at a dollar per play, full coverage of the entire game would cost just over $1.2 million.

That relatively low ceiling makes Idaho Cash unusually vulnerable to capital-backed syndicates as the jackpot climbs. And that’s exactly what happened in September 2025 when the jackpot hit its record peak.

Texas Lottery Scandal: Same MO

The case mirrors that of a lottery scandal in Texas where a European syndicate was able to buy up around 25.8 million tickets by leveraging lottery courier services to win a jackpot of $95 million, plus millions more in secondary prizes.

Lottery courier services are third-party platforms, legal in Idaho, that let customers select numbers and order tickets via an app. The courier fulfills the request by acquiring the actual lottery tickets from a licensed brick-and-mortar retail – or by simply printing the tickets itself under license. In Texas, the syndicate had couriers printing tickets around the clock.

The scheme was widely believed to have been orchestrated by a syndicate linked to the owners of London-based parimutuel betting site Colossus Bets and Malta-based software provider Spinola Gaming. There is no suggestion this was the same syndicate that hit the Idaho Lottery.

Casino.org has approached the Idaho Lottery and the Idaho Secretary of State for further information about who might be behind Mudspell Pizza, LLC.