* As if getting kicked out of the Powerball and Mega Millions wasn’t enough…
If you win more than $25,000 in the Illinois Lottery after July 1, don’t expect to take home your winnings right away.
The Illinois Lottery said the lack of funding due to the state budget crisis will cause a delay in the payment of lottery winnings. In 2015, a similar situation caused by a lack of appropriations held up more than $112 million in lottery claims.
“Players should be confident knowing the Illinois Lottery has the money to pay these winning claims,” Illinois Lottery Acting Director Greg Smith said. “That means the General Assembly needs to approve a truly balanced budget that includes Lottery funding in order to ensure all prize payments will occur.”
Small prizes of $600 or less will continue to be paid normally.
- Ratso Rizzo - Tuesday, Jun 27, 17 @ 1:55 pm:
No lotto winnings? Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue.
- 47th Ward - Tuesday, Jun 27, 17 @ 1:58 pm:
First they go after the pensions of public employees, and now they’re going after my retirement plan too?
This aggression shall not stand, man.
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Jun 27, 17 @ 1:59 pm:
===”That means the General Assembly needs to approve a truly balanced budget that includes Lottery funding… “===
Wait, what… ?
“… truly balanced budget that includes Lottery funding… ”
So there can be a truly balanced budget without lottery funding… or there can’t BE a truly balanced budget without lottery funding…
What an extremely odd way to talk about your agency’s issues of the day.
- Michelle Flaherty - Tuesday, Jun 27, 17 @ 1:59 pm:
Illinois: Win small.
- ejjp - Tuesday, Jun 27, 17 @ 2:00 pm:
So there are pots of money that have been collected but can not paid out until a budget is approved? Does anyone know the real accounting of all funds are (money coming in, sitting in funds, owed)? Seems like every week the numbers keep changing, so how can any informed decisions be made without the true information being known?
- GLG - Tuesday, Jun 27, 17 @ 2:04 pm:
The Illinois Lottery”It’s for the children!!”
- ??? - Tuesday, Jun 27, 17 @ 2:04 pm:
OW, I think he’s referring to the appropriation authority, not the revenue that comes in from the lottery.
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Jun 27, 17 @ 2:07 pm:
===…I think he’s referring to the appropriation authority, not the revenue that comes in from the lottery===
I hear ya. Yep.
It’s this whole “truly balanced budget” jargon as THE inhibitor or lynch pin.
It’s walking a very fine line of the politics and governing in a mish-mosh “truly”… Wha?
- Huh? - Tuesday, Jun 27, 17 @ 2:09 pm:
“Players should be confident knowing the Illinois Lottery has the money to pay these winning claims,” unless it gets swept for the GRF.
- wordslinger - Tuesday, Jun 27, 17 @ 2:20 pm:
Advertising and selling tickets for jackpots you legally cannot pay is fraud.
Try it some time, see what happens.
- Mouthy - Tuesday, Jun 27, 17 @ 2:21 pm:
Everybody should quit playing in the first stage of a citizen’s revolt against the state government. The big games are rackets anyway…
- Henry Francis - Tuesday, Jun 27, 17 @ 2:30 pm:
How is this any different from inducing vendors into signing contracts when the state has no legal ability to pay?
- Ron - Tuesday, Jun 27, 17 @ 2:34 pm:
Sad, one of my favorite revenue generators for the State. Pot legalization should be done immediately. Illinois is missing out on hundreds of millions of dollars in annual tax revenue by not legalizing and regulating the sale of marijuana.
- weary - Tuesday, Jun 27, 17 @ 2:44 pm:
Lottery: a tax on people who are bad at math
Illinois Lottery: a game run by a state that is bad at math
- Annonin' - Tuesday, Jun 27, 17 @ 3:02 pm:
Guessin’ lottery still has not produced docunents proving Powerball and Megamillions us cutting them off. Gov Happy junk created crisis
- No fool - Tuesday, Jun 27, 17 @ 3:05 pm:
After 2 1/2 years without a budget, why should lottery winners feel confident that the money will be there. Did the Gov. just sweep all the money from the state solar power fund?
- Texas Red - Tuesday, Jun 27, 17 @ 3:10 pm:
Many of the Dem base voters will suffer disparate impact if the lottery stops paying
- Annonin' - Tuesday, Jun 27, 17 @ 3:10 pm:
What about fake Powerball cut off…any proof?
- Never play with people who play with guns - Tuesday, Jun 27, 17 @ 5:01 pm:
Brothers and sisters its all a scam. The house always wins
- Joe Public - Tuesday, Jun 27, 17 @ 5:01 pm:
Does the ‘Acting Director’ ‘truly’ understand that he has allowed his name, reputation and agency to be used, quite cynically and ruthlessly, by the Administration for, at best, short term political advantage?
- CEA - Tuesday, Jun 27, 17 @ 10:36 pm:
New Lottery slogan: “Just think of what you could do with $600!”
- Chuckee Baby - Wednesday, Jun 28, 17 @ 8:19 am:
For all those folks that didn’t play the lottery because the jackpots were “just too large”…….