Illinois state lottery suspends sales, pay-outs to big winners

Lottery ticket retailers in states bordering Illinois started to enjoy a bonanza of additional sales this weekend following the news that Illinois lawmakers failed on Friday to complete the new budget, or come up with a solution to mandatory measures that the Illinois state lottery must impose as a result of the budget stalemate.

Although Powerball and Mega Millions are multi-state games, they require that participating states have budgets and the ability to pay their share of any large pay-outs.

Those measures require the lottery to not only suspend Mega Millions and Powerball sales, but also impose indefinite restrictions on pay-outs to winners of more than $25,000. Players who win under $25,000 will be able to cash in tickets as usual.

Two bills authorising payments above $25,000 remain stuck in legislative committee, according to the Chicago Tribune.

If this report sounds familiar, Our readers may rcall that in 2015 the Illinois Lottery didn’t get the funding it needed until the end of the year – meaning the holders of 3,900 winning tickets had to postpone collecting more than $112 million in winnings.

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