Audit: Illinois Lottery broke law to get around budget impasse

Comment #15

OneTrickpony — Mon, 23 May 2016 12:08:17 GMT

It seems to me that the State of Illinois is using the Illinois Lottery as a scapegoat for their epic FAIL and ineptitude in passing a budget. I guess the bill for paying 25,000 dead people to vote in the last election has come due.

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/28141995/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/t/illinois-has-long-legacy-public-corruption/#.V0Ls0Y-cH4g

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/15/chicago-most-corrupt-city_n_1278988.html

Comment #14

Stack47 — Mon, 23 May 2016 02:33:03 GMT

Can someone please give me the Reader's Digest version of this article for me?

Apparently the Illinois Lottery knew there was a good possibility the state legislators would not pass the budget so they decided to pre-pay their part in future multi-state lottery games. By doing that the lottery could continue selling PB and MM tickets.

State Rep. Jack Franks, D-Marengo, who is a vocal critic of the Lottery Department, said the audit's finding are a big problem related to poor supervision of... [ More ]

Comment #13

Groppo — Mon, 23 May 2016 01:50:17 GMT

.

Mr. I live in Green Bay,(who reminds me of a young Ward Cleaver, driving to his first job interview.)

I've never voted. Period.

But, it would certainly not be Democrat.

Go TRUMP, all the way!

Mr. Groppo

Comment #12

LiveInGreenBay — Sun, 22 May 2016 19:40:58 GMT

Groppo you want a condensed version? Here it is...Margaret Thatcher once said The problem with socialism is eventually you run out of other people's money . In other words...Stop voting democrat

Comment #11

pickone4me — Sun, 22 May 2016 18:38:27 GMT

Actually people are starving there fights have broke out, they can't even keep the electricity on, hyper inflation has caused everything to be unaffordable there too, all thanks to the failure called socialism. It could happen here.

But getting on topic, no surprise Illinois broke the law, it's the chicago way.

Comment #10

jjtheprince — Sun, 22 May 2016 14:49:38 GMT

I live next to IL and people from Missouri like to joke that the country of Venezuela is in excellent financial shape compared to the state of Illinois lol.

Oh, and Venezuela is probably even less corrupt too.

Comment #9

rcbbuckeye — Sun, 22 May 2016 13:44:07 GMT

I've often asked myself those questions over the years.

Comment #8

Slick Nick — Sun, 22 May 2016 13:03:12 GMT

Nothing but a circus

Comment #7

music* — Sun, 22 May 2016 07:57:51 GMT

Coin Toss, Thank You for the sayings and the quote. President JFK has Cook County to thank for his win. How history would have been different had Nixon won that race in 1960. What would have Nixon done with the Cuban missile crisis? Would Nixon have got us involved in Vietnam

Comment #6

Groppo — Sun, 22 May 2016 00:38:26 GMT

.

OK, I'm less informed than the vast majority here.

I do remember some time back, when Illinois was 'broke' and couldn't pay winners their millions and such.

So, here's this article, but it's too political for me.

Can someone please give me the Reader's Digest version of this article for me?

After all, if it's important enough for Todd to post, then all of us 'regulars' should be equally interested and informed.

This is no slam against Todd's work/research, but hey... [ More ]

Comment #5

lejardin — Sun, 22 May 2016 00:11:12 GMT

It should be generating more than a billion more than it is? How in the world can they miss THAT mark?

Yea big problem to put it mildly, fire them all and do another in depth audit.

Comment #4

Coin Toss — Sun, 22 May 2016 00:09:08 GMT

music*,

There's a saying in Illinois, The dog barks in Chicago and wags its tail in Springfield.

All anyone has to do to win election in Illinois is get Cook County (Chicago).

Another saying is, My grandfather voted Republican until the day he died, now he's been voting Democrat ever since .

Comment #3

ArizonaDream — Sat, 21 May 2016 23:16:41 GMT

I thought the lotterie's finances were separate from the state budget, at least until the profits were transferred into the general/education funds

Comment #2

dr65 — Sat, 21 May 2016 23:09:27 GMT

June 30, 2015 they make 2 $10m payouts to ensure their participation in MM PB. Then

July 1st, 2015 they halt payments then halt them over $600 in Oct.

Some bozo stated there is something very wrong because the lottery should be making $1b more?

Do you think??

So they don't want to pay winners but pay $20m so everything appears right...until now.

Layoffs too..how DIRTY is that?

Everyone remotely involved with that decision ESPECIALLY the top dogs should be thrown

out...not l... [ More ]

Comment #1

music* — Sat, 21 May 2016 22:47:20 GMT

I believe that most of these politicians are up for a vote to keep their jobs this November.

Illinois voters should vote for new members of their State legislature. Maybe even a new Executive branch.

Lottery money does not add to the budget it just replaces the amount transferred out by the politicians.

Audit: Illinois Lottery broke law to get around budget impasse

Lottery Post — Sat, 21 May 2016 21:14:08 GMT

Eleven months ago, just as the state budget impasse was about to take hold, the Illinois Lottery violated state finance law by prepaying $20 million to take part in future multi-state lottery games, according to an Auditor General's report.

Lottery officials made the prepayment because they were worried that a budget stalemate could prevent the state from participating in the Multi-State Lottery Association's future Powerball and Mega Millions games, according to the audit.

The state's Lot... [ More ]