AUSTIN – On Feb. 17, one lucky person's life was supposed to change when they hit the Texas Lottery's jackpot for $83.5 million. Now, more than three months later, that person is suing the state after having yet to receive a single penny.

The winning ticket was purchased from a third-party vendor (or courier company) through a smartphone app -- which gets to the root of why the anonymous winner hasn't been paid yet. Though the purchase was ruled valid, the commission's allowance of couriers came under fire from high-ranking elected officials around the same time due to conflicts with a statute that forbids the use of phones for the lottery.

Of course, that's of no concern to the winner who made a perfectly legal purchase and won fair and square after purchasing 20 tickets, including the jackpot that matched all six numbers, from a vendor affiliated with DraftKings. But the commission is withholding their money pending a Texas Rangers investigation into the use of couriers in the state.

"We waited as long as we could for the lottery to do the right thing," Randy Howry, an attorney representing the winner, told the Austin American-Statesman. "Now, we're asking the judge to issue an order telling the lottery to pay."

Also complicating matters is an apparent effort in Texas to move the lottery to a different state agency, which is why Howry is also asking that the money at least be set aside until the courier case is settled.

"We understand that there's an effort in the Legislature to move the lottery to a different state agency, and we don't want that money to get lost in the shuffle," he said.