Illinois will happily take your money and sell you a lottery ticket but, as the AP reports,
Without a state budget agreement two months into the new fiscal year, there’s no authority for the state comptroller to cut checks over $25,000. That means smaller winnings can be paid out, but not the larger lottery wins.
Now, the state has a monopoly on these little games of chance. Set up one, yourself, and it will send people out to arrest you. Then it will charge you with a crime and attempt to put you in jail.
Out in the realm of free enterprise there are these things called casinos. You can walk into one, put down some money on one of many types of bets, and if you win, the house pays. You can ask Mr. Trump and he’ll tell you that this is the way it works.
But the state? Well, it plays by different rules. Or no rules at all. But the Illinois winners shouldn’t feel too bad. The money they paid for winning tickets went to a good cause.
Right?
