Illinois gives lottery winners IOUs

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Illinois gives lottery winners IOUs


Joe Mobley
#off topic forum
  • I think they should be forced to suspend the lottery - winnings should be paid out of proceeds before the proceeds are spent.

    If the lottery payouts are at the whim of state budgets - it will become a common problem that occurs every time a state runs in financial difficulty.
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    • Lottery's should be entirely self funded. What's the problem?
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    • Yes. It's like selling something, and thinking every dollar is profit. You take the costs out, before you take the profit. And the payout is the cost of goods. This is a form of fraud.
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  • Banned
    I agree with Kay. Shut be shut down if they are funding something else rather than the owed payouts. That would probably take care of the problem pretty quickly. I'll bet they'd manage somehow to get those winners paid. Or just die.
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    • I always find it interesting when something like this happens...they can't make any "payments out" but they have no problem with money being paid in....

      I think the lottery should be shut down until winners are paid - but that won't happen.
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  • I don't think it's best that if a state is having trouble paying bills to remove a revenue stream. Instead, they should simply tell people upfront that big winners may not be paid immediately and let the lotto players decide for themselves if they still want to play.
  • As ThomM said, if it had been run properly, there would've been enough money to pay out the winners and fund whatever else it was supposed to fund.
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    • If the funds to pay out people are not available from the takings from the game then that means the State concerned is plundering them. It's called theft.

      Allocation's should be:

      Paying the prize money to the winners.

      Paying the lottery administration company their fees.

      Paying out to the chosen charities bodies that were chosen to receive funds.

      The state of course earns it's revenue from the taxes it takes from the players and of course the lottery administration company used.

      It's black and white, no deviation or it's theft. It's just a daily/weekly pot to divide up.

      Telling people that it's more than just an odd's thing and they may not get there bigger wins straight away and they play at there own risk of this happening is complete nonsense.

      I am well aware of course that over here, States offer people weekly/monthly payments on big wins for the incentive of overall less taxation and and that allows the State to earn interest in a bank. Nothing wrong with that. Both benefit in the long run.

      However, it's still a pot or revenue to be divided up and nothing should be syphoned off for any reason. Theft, corruption, prosecution for misappropriation of funds is all I see here.

      In the UK and Europe the Lotto is tax free. What you win is what you get. No silly need for offering payments etc.

      Whats the deal in Australia I wonder?
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    • Yep here in New York the state learned from the pros

      Heck we even came out with an app for your smart phone to make playing the numbers even easier. Playing the lottery? There’s an app for that
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    Illinois gives lottery winners IOUs

    Last month, two winners, who won $50,000 and $250,000 prizes in July but had yet to be paid, launched a class-action suit against the Illinois Lottery. The lawsuit estimated the lottery had failed to pay out more than $288 million in prizes since the last state budget expired on June 30. Illinois gives lottery winners IOUs