People who've waited more than a year for Illinois leaders to finish a state budget might start to feel like the prospects of a compromise are similar to the odds of winning the lottery.
Now, Illinois Lottery winners might — again — face the prospects of not being paid their jackpots in a timely manner if no spending deal is struck by the end of the month.
Last year, lottery winners sued the state to get their payouts and eventually did after Gov. Bruce Rauner and lawmakers agreed on a patchwork budget plan.
That plan, though, expires with the budget year on June 30. Attorney Thomas A. Zimmerman Jr., who represented about three dozen lottery winners in that lawsuit, said he's prepared to act quickly again.
Illinois Lottery officials wouldn't speculate on what happens after July 1, but they pushed for a short-term budget plan Rauner proposed May 31 that would pay winners and leaned on Democrats.
"Lottery prizes will continue to be paid to all winners prior to the end of the fiscal year, June 30," spokesman Stephen Rossi said. "We encourage the majority party in the General Assembly to pass the governor's stopgap budget proposal."
With interest
Zimmerman said his clients continue to seek $1.5 million in interest from the state as a result of delayed payouts last year.
Some social services advocates and college officials aren't getting payments from the state and warned of serious fallout even as they've watched lottery winners collect before them. A lawsuit from dozens of social services providers is trying to get them paid, too.
Not the only ones
Also in the plan that paid for lottery winners last year: individual suburbs' share of gasoline taxes and gambling taxes.
In the absence of a budget compromise, that money will stop flowing July 1, too.
"History is repeating itself," Des Plaines Mayor Matt Bogusz said.
Elgin Mayor Dave Kaptain said officials have talked about what programs might be considered optional if the stalemate continues.
"I think that's the prudent thing to do," he said.
When Tax Time Rolls Around: Try Giving Illinois an IOU Instead of Cash and See What Happens!
Mr. Raven62,
I don't know if I'd try that, but I'm thinking about our crumbling system, and what I'm going to do,
if it ever gets to the point where I'm so fed up with my state's shenanigans, that I'm actually going to think:
"Is playing the lotto, even worth it, anymore?"
Week by week, I just hang on, and on, and on, and like to think that we're not in the same boat as IL.
I'm sorry for those players there, in IL. It must suck to get to the store,
get your lotto ticket, and then not only hope to win, but hope your state isn't going to all of a sudden scoop lotto players
into the corner.
Mr. Groppo
Can we predict how much in dollars this is going to hurt the lottery in Illinois? Here come some more lawsuits.
Neighboring States will get more lottery business. Indiana, Missouri, Iowa. Those are lucky states.
Any State that has no problem taking money from its citizens when purchasing lottery tickets etc & then refusing to payout has NO right staying in business.Just awful.
There was a time when Russia paid its citizens with vodka- don't know how that finally turned out.Terrible,terrible.
Yeah if this happens again, Illinois players just need to boycott.
Illinois is truly a failed state, it's like the Venezuela of the USA lol.
I am stunned by this. How is this even possible? Why would anyone even play the lottery in the state any more?
? here what happens if a scratch ticket winners tickets expire before a budget is reached? Will they still be able to collect winnings even if the ticket can not be claimed? Or will the be SOL.
You still submit the claim as normal. But instead of a check, you get an iou, to be paid once our lawmakers get their heads out of their you-know-whats.
Withhold all pay to these Lawmakers, until the lottery players have been paid. After all is said and done, then vote them out....!!!!
I'm no expert on Illinois but i'm pretty sure most of the population lives in Chicago and the suburbs of it so Indiana and Wisconsin would be the big winners from the Illinois pioneers.
Illinois lottery...
We're not gonna pay but play anyway ??
Welcome to the 3rd world USA. It will get worse.
Illinois residents should vote with their pockets, and play other state lotteries. It you can't travel to other states, you can subscribe to Megabucks Doubler, from the Massachusetts Lottery by phone from any state.
Why isn't the prize fund ring-fenced directly from original ticket sales like it is here in the UK? its utterly bizzare the way US lotteries seem to be run.
Once again Illinois, if you're not going to pay it don't book it.
If it happens again Illinois will certainly lose some $$$ as people go to those states again to buy and maybe some wont come back again this time
People like me though who depend on public transportation likely wont be able to simply go and buy from those area's
We will still buy because at end of day an IOU is still better then nothing also some people will buy simply out of fear that if there #'s come up and they dont have ticket they couldn't live with themselves afterwards
As someone who buys scratch offs I also noticed the odds on Indiana games weren't as good as Illinois games in past
Call us suckers but at most I may curtail some of my spending but will still play
Another impasse could certainly be final death blow to raffles though. Illinois Halloween raffle ticket sales were not good during the last payout issue and they didn't do any seasonal raffles this year for St Patrick's Day or Millionaire raffle
Could certainly see death of raffle especially if this Halloween we once again have no payouts and much less interest/playing in state
moving out of illinois would be the best option. if that's not possible hang a lottery basket by your door and toss 3 or 4 dollars into it every day. at the end of the year take it down and you will have over 1000.00 in it tax free and all in cash.
I hope they pass the bill. Otherwise, no more money for the players. Too bad for them.
The lotteries run just fine for the most part in all other states. It's really only in the Venezuela of the US (Illinois) that we have problems. That was Obummer's state so go figure lol.
After seeing how sales were hurt last year, I think they will be fairly quick to pass stop-gap payout authorization this time. That doesn't excuse the utter failure on passing a budget however.
Kingofearth,
True, most of the population is in Chicago - and the collar counties- but not everyone - there's also Iowa, Missouri and Kentucky.
I fully understand, i was merely pointing out that Wisconsin would receive more money from Illinois players than the states that border southern and central Illinois.
That is what happens when democrats are running things, detroit is another good example too.
Exactly, they are playing dirty rotten pool.
The poorest, stupidest and most inefficient states in the nation are all solid republican states, the richest, smartest and most efficient are all solid democratic states. Be grateful you live in a light blue state, you don't want to live in solid rep state.
When i win the MM jackpot in Ohio on Friday, i will expect to collect from Ohio lottery. But every participating state lottery will chip in their share of the sales.
Will IL refuse to pay in a timely fashion to other states too?
Or do they do this mockery only with her own residents??
Or is this limited only to IL games (and it is different for multi state lotteries)???
It's resolved
https://www.lotterypost.com/news/304613