Jackpot.com CEO Akshay Khanna Talks Texas Regulation, Lottery Philosophy, And Meeting Demand For A ‘Basic Function’

In the Financial District of the financial capital of the world last week, CEO of lottery courier Jackpot.com Akshay Khanna took the stage for the discussion “Predictions 2026” alongside fellow gambling industry chief executives to kick around top-of-mind issues today and also peer into the crystal ball.

Immediately afterward, Lottery Geeks editor Brett Smiley had the opportunity to sit down with Khanna to focus on lottery issues in particular. The conversation at Next.io started, of course, with thoughts on the market in Texas, home to a rollercoaster month that has seen the state Senate unanimously pass a bill would ban lotto courier services and lotto apps, among other twists and turns.

What follows are highlights from the conversation, lightly edited for clarity and brevity.

Lottery Geeks (LG): Let’s talk Texas for a moment and the recent backlash to gambling initiatives and lottery couriers in particular. There’s a lot of conservatism in the state and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has repeatedly claimed that there is minimal support among the chamber’s GOP majority to expand gambling. Is there anything instructive about this whole experience that might inform how you guys approach regulation in additional states?

Akshay Khanna (AK): First and foremost, I’ll say the lottery’s announcement makes it sound as if it’s definitive and final, but the fact of the matter is there is legislation currently going through the Texas legislature that would regulate lottery couriers. We have been begging for regulation with the Texas Lottery and with the Texas legislature in the past. This is something we welcome. 

We are regulated in states like New York, New Jersey, Arkansas, soon to be Colorado, and that is something that we want, because regulation solidifies your presence in the state. The philosophy that the Texas Lottery has always had was, “We are not in a position to regulate here” as was publicly stated by the Texas Lottery repeatedly. And then all of a sudden, there’s a turn in the political sentiment, and the lottery decides, well we can regulate them and we’re going to shut them down. And we just didn’t feel like that was a fair assessment of the value that we’ve provided to Texans.

Since we have been shut down, we’ve had thousands of people reach out saying, “Why can’t I buy my lottery tickets on my phone anymore? This felt like such a basic function once I knew that it was possible.” And they’ve written in to complain to the governor’s office and to the Texas Lottery, because it’s become a core part of people’s day to day to have the ability — “dollar and a dream,” right? — to be able to buy that ticket on their phones without having to leave their homes.

So, we’re going to continue to push for regulation in Texas and in other states. We think it’s the right path to go down and it separates the couriers that are very clearly focused on responsible gaming, age verification, location verification, all of the rules that we follow in every state in which we operate. And hopefully other states realize, like the New Yorks, New Jerseys of the world, that this is the right path to go down and similar to sports betting, we get regulated in 20, 30, 40, 50 states. 

LG: There’s recession fears right now in the current economic climate, with various concerning actions and statements coming out of the Trump Administration. Historically, I think lottery sales and tickets have proven to be fairly recession-proof. Is that what the data tells you? 

AK: To a large extent we see that, look, when belts tighten, everything suffers. So I’m not sure that there’s really anything that is fully recession proof. That’s the unfortunate reality and my hope is that we are in the beginnings of a strong consumer economy, obviously.

The whiplash of the last few weeks, potentially the last few years, has dented some of that consumer confidence, but generally we feel good about the position that we’re in. We feel good about the fact that we are taking a product that has existed for decades and we’re just giving people a better, easier, more convenient, safer, and more secure way to purchase.

LG: The Mega Millions ticket increase from $2 to $5 per ticket will be taking effect pretty soon. How does that factor into your projections for sales?

AK: We’re intrigued. It’s entering the unknown to some extent. We think that there’s going to be a huge opportunity because consumers are going to be excited by the quicker developing big jackpots, the larger jackpots. So not only are the jackpots going to be larger, but they’re going to get there much quicker.

And there are going to be some people that are turned off by the price point, and they will likely purchase other lottery tickets like scratchers, or Powerball tickets, and so we think it’s going to be a really interesting and exciting development, but truthfully, we don’t know. Our understanding is that the testing that the organization behind Mega Millions has done has all shown consumer excitement for the product. Time will tell.

LG: Still a very large percentage of lottery ticket sales nationwide are purchased at convenience stores and in retail settings. What does the research or your internal figures show for purchase size or quantity — is it typically larger or smaller on digital platforms? 

AK: So it tends to be larger on digital for a few reasons. One is, people tend to deposit the money and over time, they spend it down. But two, it’s just convenient, right?

A lot of times in retail, particularly when the jackpots are high, you either see lines or you see what is very commonly known to my friends, which is, “Oh shoot, it’s 8 o’clock. I forgot to buy my ticket.” Now you can either get back in your car or if you happen to live in a city, you get back outside your house, quickly run to the nearest corner store, and buy a ticket. Or you can just whip out your phone and buy it. The ability to do that at times of high demand is when we really see an increase in spend. 

LG: At a conference like Next.io in New York City where sports betting and iGaming are front and center, is there something that you tend to take away that’s instructive for the lottery, which is generally not mentioned alongside the rest as one of the major verticals?

AK: During opening remarks there was talk about the size of the gaming industry, and of course that didn’t include the lottery, right? It included brick-and-mortar casinos. Included online casino, included online sports betting, included horse racing, but not the lottery.

Lottery is bigger than all of those combined — it was a $120 billion industry last year alone. So for me it’s always interesting being at this conference and just remembering that the lottery is not at the forefront of online or brick-and mortar gaming. People in the industry don’t necessarily think about it, but the consumer absolutely does, because they spend more on lottery tickets than they do each one of these individual verticals. 

The lottery often gets forgotten, and I understand, it’s sort of the less sexy part of the gaming ecosystem, and that’s OK, because everyday Americans buy lottery tickets with consistency because of the ability to purchase a dream. And that ability to dream that’s associated with the lottery is somewhat unique to the lottery.