Illinois Lottery delays payments for winning tickets over $600

The Illinois lottery faces other changes.

So why is the state continuing to sell lottery tickets?

Last month, the Illinois comptroller’s office formally announced in that without a allot for the July 1 fiscal year, the agency didn’t have the authority to write checks of more than $25,000 and payments would be delayed. But the state’s announcement that winners of more than $600 will have to wait for their prizes has caught the public’s attention. Reuters reports Illinois Comptroller Leslie Munger said Wednesday the $560 million due in November will be delayed and December’s payment could also be delayed or reduced.

Meanwhile, since July, the lottery’s fund has completely run out of money, and now anyone who wins more than 0 will be getting an IOU, according to Slate. The lottery would then reimburse the retailer. At the same time, the lottery should stop selling tickets for these prizes until it knows that they can be paid without delays.

Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” dispatched a crew to Illinois this week and interviewed Danny Chasteen, the $250,000 victor who filed the lawsuit, and his girlfriend, Susan Rick, mywebtimes.com reported.

Slate writer Elliott Hannon takes a similar view.

So how did the Illinois Lottery wind up in such dire financial straits? That their proposals wouldn’t balance the budget and would raise the state’s already sky high tax rates isn’t much of a shock either. Specifically a budget stalemate between state Democrats and Republican Governor Bruce Rauner.

The lottery said the payments will be made once a state budget is passed.

“For the first time, we were finally gonna get a break”, an Oglesby lotter victor told the Chicago Tribune.

“Once the budget situation is resolved, this will be resolved as well.”