This just SUCKS!

Illinois can't payout any lottery winning over $600:



That is a pathetic state of affairs! There is just no excuse for that.........none.

I saw that on the news here Lips.  What BS.  Like you said, there is no excuse for this.  States find money to pay other things and this should be one of them!

medtrans

Exactly! And according to the State all proceeds from the Lottery were to go funding our schools. Our schools are in worst shape ever!  What are they doing with all that money?

For every dollar sold in tickets an equal amount goes to the State. So for example if the Lottery goes up to $40 million Jackpot, the State already took their cut of $40 million!

With all the lotteries going on and all the money they are making where the heck is it going to! 

whats the reason for this?

I read that in the paper yesterday! That does suck! Are you in Illinois? Our state is forever having budget issues, but the Lotto is going strong! I can guarantee you that all of the Lotto money is not going into our school's like they promised it would be when it started! I think California is in the bottom half of the nation academically. Terrible. I hope Illinois makes some changes at the top to weed out some of the folks taking too much from the top, because there is no reason for this to be happening. A lot more money goes into the lotto then ever comes out!

sounds to me like the governer of that state is stealing all the funds while letting his state go downhill cause there is really no excuse for not paying the lottery winners.

Just wow. Hard to believe that this is happening in the US.

what wait... so what happened to all the money they acquired from tickets?

That's what I want to know. Lotto retailers generated $102,099,326.31 in June alone. Scary.

Wow that is really upsetting.. If you're a rightful winner, you deserve to get paid. I don't think they can't afford to pay out winnings, just don't think so.

you know it

This is such unresponsible thing! I am sure that this is not by law .They should be sanctioned for this.It is cheating of customers.

Very strange. So many people is playing and buying lottery tickets and they set a limit?! It is ridiculous and there is no excuse.

And here is the thing.........if there is "money issues" to pay winners now it is only going to get worse because now sales on lottery is going to drop tremendously. So if they think the State has a problem now...........they ain't seen nothing yet with this stupid move!

What I find impossible to believe is that they can still sell these tickets when they know they are not going to pay.  When someone wins and has to wait until the "budget" has been reached do that person then get the interest that has accumulated on those winnings.  Of course not, the state keeps it and that is unfair. I say everyone should stop buying the tickets until they can do payouts.  First it was they couldn't pay any winnings over 2500 and now its down to 600.  This is a scam.

Hi ya Lips and Rhoda!!! I know I heard about that when we were still in Illinois...what a crock!!! I wonder...let's say they play Powerball...that is a multi-state lottery...how is it that they can't pay when there are like 30-40 states in it?

What a wonderful pleasant surprise Rosebud! Been a long time and have thought of you often. Welcome back and i hope you are here to stay for awhile.

In regards to your post, i have wondered the same thing as far as multiple state lotteries. I would think in that situation they would have to pay up. I can't imagine winning in another state and saying Oh yeah your winnings will be a bit short because Illinois can't pay you now.

Crazy isn't it?

I believe, not sure, that in that case the winnings are paid by a different entity.  It's just the IL lottery that is affected which is why I say they shouldn't be allowed to sell them if they cant pay.  Plus to my understanding, this was supposed to be held in a separate account which has nothing what so ever to do with a "budget".  I bet if people stopped buying the tickets and the revenue that they generate from those sells falls, the budget would be reached very quickly

That almost sounds, as if some former operators of rogue casinos have just taken over illinios.

Odds in the lottery are so extremely unfair - the hope of the in majority extremely hard working people paying for the minimal chance to get out of their financial cage - is abused. Then they do not pay the winnings... the lottery should face some kind of boycott - then illinios has to find another way to get 50% of that montly 100.000.000 ;-) exciting task for politics.

Did not imagine such things could happen in the middle of a country I always considered as the most civilized in the world...

However same things happen in any country - just not so public...

Exactly what I was saying. There is no way I would buy one more ticket from IL  it would just be donating money and I can find many other WORTHY organizations to donate to if that is what I wanted to do.  I still just can not understand how they are still able to sell these tickets.