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Illinoisans Look To "Get Lucky" In Other States After Lottery IOU Debacle
Two weeks ago, Illinois Comptroller Leslie Geissler Munger announced that the state would skip a $560 million pension payment in November thanks to the budget battle in Springfield. The news marked the latest embarrassment in a string of setbacks tied to an increasingly serious financial crisis that was thrust into the national spotlight in May when the State Supreme Court's decision to strike down a pension reform bid prompted Moody’s to downgrade Chicago to junk.
As we documented back in August, the state is in fact so broke that it’s begun paying lottery winners in IOUs.
The practice of handing out Rauner bucks instead of Federal Reserve notes was initially limited to those who won more than $25,000, but in the wake of Geissler Munger’s announcement, the upper limit on cash payouts was reduced to just $600. That followed directly on the heels of our prediction that “anyone who wins more than a few thousand in the Illinois lottery can go ahead and figure on getting a pieces of paper with Bruce Rauner's picture rather than Ben Franklin's for the foreseeable future.”
Now that Illinois isn’t paying out lottery winners, Illinoisans are simply driving to other states to play. Here’s The Chicago Tribune:
With Illinois delaying payouts of more than $600 because of its budget mess, neighboring states are salivating at the chance to boost their own lottery sales. Businesses near borders, particularly in Indiana, Kentucky and Iowa, say they've already noticed a difference.
Many gas stations, smoke shops and convenience stores in states bordering Illinois say they first noticed an increase in August, when the state said payouts over $25,000 would have to wait because there wasn't authority to cut checks that big. Now those businesses are reporting a bigger flurry since Oct. 14, when the Illinois Lottery announced it had lowered that threshold to payouts over $600.
Idalia Vasquez, who manages a GoLo gas station in Hammond, said irked Illinois residents have been streaming in to buy lottery tickets. She estimates ticket sales are up as much as 80 percent since Illinois' second delay announcement.
"We have long lines, but they're patient with it because Illinois is not paying," Vasquez said of the store roughly 20 miles from Chicago. "They're all coming here and saying, 'I'm from Illinois, how do you play it here?'"
The Hoosier Lottery even issued a statement welcoming Illinoisans.
In Kentucky's McCracken County, along Illinois' southern border, there was a 13 percent jump in scratch-offs from July 1 through Oct. 9, compared with a 9 percent jump statewide.
One retailer with higher sales is Paducah's Kentucky Tobacco Outlet, where most of the customers are already from Illinois. According to manager Michael Coomer, those customers are now buying more and say trust in Illinois is gone.
"It's definitely known and very vocal," he said of Illinois' problems. "It's definitely going to be better for us."
Yes, "definitely better" for neighboring states and definitely worse for Illinois. Note that this will only make the budget situation worse. That is, by not paying out lottery winners, Springfield has essentially sent all of the potential revenue from ticket sales across the state's borders meaning the move to limit payouts is actually now set to exacerbate the conditions which forced the state to pay in IOUs in the first place.
Illinois likely won't get much sympathy though because as State Rep. Jack Franks put it earlier this year:
"...our government is committing a fraud on the taxpayers, because we're holding ourselves out as selling a good, and we're not — we're not selling anything. The lottery is a contract: I pay my money, and if I win, you're obligated to pay me and you have to pay me timely. It doesn't say if you have money or when you have money."
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The lottery is a tax on people who can't count
Only dumbed down debt slaves play the lottery.
Fool me once, shame on you.
Fool me twice, then I must be a sucker from Illinois.
That's why I don't understand why they're not keeping it alive.
It's a 5 to 1 revenue machine!
That's waaaaaaaaaaay too complicated for the elected reps in the Illinois legislature - why expect them to be any smarter than the people that elected them? I mean, invest one dollar in infrastructure and get five dollars back? Gubernmint does not understand investing, only spending.
And the legislature seems waaaaaaay more smart than their State Supreme Court, who was not present when the common sense was handed out.
The working class of Illinois just needs to flee. Take the lose on your home and get the hell out. Especially if you are young - go west, young people, go west.
"Soule is reported to have been the first State Superintendent of Schools in Indiana and, his place in history is insured by his 1851 editorial as editor of theTerra Haute Express where he penned the title phrase for an editorial, "Go West, young man, go West."
John Soule also lived in Illinois for 18 years...
Illinois is so underwater that the lottery money doesn't matter. Also officials think it might pressure decisions in a way they would like. This stuff has been going on so long that everyone thinks it is just another "don't let a crisis go to waste" moment. No one believes anything.
Time to raise property, sales, and income taxes!
Social security = the federal lottery.
That's one lottery that has odds of you winning quickly going to zero.
What has eight balls, and fucks poor people?
Michele Obama?
LMAO
LMAO
Which part of the Odds are Against you, don't they get..?
So how is it different from the NYSE?
Can't be rigged by the Federal Reserve.
These Illinoisans got lucky when they crossed the state border.
I escaped from Chicago, now I live just over the border in NW Indiana. Every single thing costs less. Anytime I need a laugh I look out the window and look west...
Good call. I did the same but went to WI. Looked in Indiana but it was easier to visit family from WI without having to pass through the city.
So who are more pathetic ???
The state , who has a license to steal, they just have to pay a few winners OR the idiots who keep playing the Lottery ???
Yes
https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/summary.php?ind=Q05&recipdetail=H...
^little dated, to be fair... but the #1 and #4 spots by Illinois Congress critters!
interesting, given Rahm running Chicago into the ground and Chicago and Illinois' massive purchases of Israel bonds - the bonds that never default because the US taxpayer foots the bill!
Did anyone ever publish the weekly or monthly or quarterly or annual net revenues for Illinois from the lottery?
Most states have it go to education. I'd hate to see the outstanding level of education offered in Illinois decline merely because they can't pay lottery winnings. I bet Illinois was like maybe #1 nationally in educational quality before the budget issues arose.
While it's true that money can't fix every problem, our nation's schools has proved beyond the shadow of doubt that education is one of those things money can fix.
I just mailed off my ballot for the biannual school bond attempted extortio.. erh, request while looking at my yearly property tax bill- these people have no shame- they treat a budget or a checkbook like my ex used to.
Apparently someone did not get the sarcasm or is a total fool.
Now if the lottery was being managed by wall St...they'd be making tons of money cuz with those guys the players never win!
Illinois, the home of Chicago and direct dickage to D.C., which is dicked to NY...now you get the sausage-link connection; it is all a casino.
That $25k limit on writing a check could have easily been bypassed by writing multiple checks.
What a fucked up state.
If you own property there, you are going to get screwed.
Depends on what county...
Is the Fed buying (monetizing) lottery tickets, now? Curious minds wish to know...
gambling is nothing more than a stupid man's tax. don't be stupid.
Those liberals in Illinois must really hate dumb and poor people.
Liberalism is a mental disorder without hope.
It appears we have a seriously demented Liberal around; likely voted multiple times for Obama and may be from Chicago.
It's time for those Illinois lottery winners to call J.G.Wentworth.
These are basically structured payouts. They're going to have to pay a large percentage to J.G., but at least they can get a lump sum payout and let the legal/loan sharks fight it out.
Anyone who would buy an annuity with the state of Illinois as the one in charge of paying you is insane.
Why does every told you so story about a liberal hell hole brings a smile to my face?
While it is certainly a Liberal hell hole it is ahead of its peers in the bankruptcy process, because it is *the home of* Shitcago. It is one of the most corrupt places in the US.
I hope I win tomorrow night's Texas IOU Lottery!
What would you expect from a place called Illusionois?
There's a strange circular irony here, where the state lottery system won't have any lotto money to give to the schools, so education in the state will go downhill, and the kids will end up so stupid that they play the lotto.
It must suck to have to drive to another state just to pay the idiot tax.
State lotteries pay back about 50% on scratch tickets and 60% on Keno. If Las Vegas paid that poorly it would be a ghost town again.
Lotteries are voluntary taxes for the mathematically inept.
However, I won $50,000 on a scratch ticket once. Quit buying them then...
how much of that 50k did you have to pay in taxes?
and was it taken out up-front?
I said this when I saw the IOU story - it's tempting to grab this unencumbered cash - but it is foolish to scare customers away from a 'game' where the state grabs a big chunk of every dollar being played.
Who didn't see this coming, next up, we can't afford to pay the IOU'S due to a lack of lottery participation. A default in any other time. Many more defaults to come.
I think it is highly amusing. Talk about killing the cash cow!
Soos you will be able to buy LDS - lottery default swaps and trade them.
That's what threw me. WTF?
They make scads of cash off it, then turn around and stick a grenade in its pants.
Bunch of primates.
A chance to win an IOU from the Illnois Lottery?
And with a perfectly straight face too, we are doomed.
Absolute morally bankrupt reprobate ignoramuses.