Illinois Lottery is Delaying Prize Payment

Illinois Lottery is delaying prize payment until budget is replenished, announced officials, adding that on Thursday there will be no money left.

Nonetheless, people who have bought tickets for the Illinois Lottery and won up to 600 dollars can still reclaim the sums from retail locations. The bigger issue is with winning over this limit. Due to the Illinois budget impasse, the comptroller office in Illinois declared that there is no budget for the fiscal year starting July 1st. As such, the Illinois Lottery lacks the authority to write any checks above the sum of 25,000 dollars. As such, all payments that exceed the imposed limit will be delayed.

The statement of Illinois Lottery officials also adds:

“Once a budget is passed in Springfield, all outstanding claims will be paid”.

On Wednesday, the check writing account was expected to be depleted by Thursday. With no authority to replenish it until a budget is passed, all claims over 600 dollars will be delayed.

In July, the Illinois Lottery already started passing IOUs to winners. Large payout may not be handed yet as the comptroller needs to be authorized by the state legislature to cut the checks.

The Illinois Lottery is delaying prize payment. However, it already faces two lawsuits filed by two winners whose payments were delayed the previous month. The lawsuits target the Illinois Lottery, as well as the Lottery director B.R. Lane. The lawsuits also target the Illinois Lottery Control Board and Mr. Lane’s management company Northstar Lottery Group.

What is sought is that the Illinois Lottery does hand the prizes that go above 25,000 dollars. In addition, it should pay interest to the prize winners. Until the prize sums are released, the Illinois Lottery should be kept from paying any operational costs or administrative costs. At the same time, the lottery should stop selling tickets for these prizes until it knows that they can be paid without delays.

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