--- description: A budget stalemate in the Illinois legislature has forced the state to delay payment to lottery winners over $600. title: Illinois Lottery Can't Pay Its Winners image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [U.S.](/section/us/) ## U.S. Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Illinois Lottery Can't Pay Its Winners  by [Tessa Berenson](/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Oct 15, 2015 6:35 PM CUT  by [Tessa Berenson](/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Oct 15, 2015 6:35 PM CUT A budget stalemate in the Illinois legislature has forced the state to delay payment to lottery winners. The state hadn’t been able to pay winners of over $25,000 since July 1, [_USA Today_ reports](http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/10/14/cash-strapped-illinois-gives-ious-to-lottery-winners/73960268/ "undefined"), and on Wednesday the state lowered the threshold to $600. “Payment delays will occur because there currently is no legal authority for the Illinois Comptroller or the Illinois Lottery to issue checks,” the Illinois Lottery said in a statement, according to _USA Today_. “Please note that the funding to pay winners exists, but the legal authority to issue checks does not.” The state is wrestling over passing a budget, caught between the Republican governor and the Democratic General Assembly. Once a budget is passed, the lottery will be able to issue checks to the winners and make good on its IOU’s. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4075486/illinois-lottery-ious/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4075486/illinois-lottery-ious/"},"headline":"Illinois Lottery Can't Pay Its Winners","datePublished":"2015-10-15T18:35:10.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T11:50:33.769Z","description":"The state isn't paying prizes above $600","url":"https://time.com/4075486/illinois-lottery-ious/","keywords":["Illinois","Lottery"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4075486/illinois-lottery-ious/","name":"Illinois Lottery Can't Pay Its Winners"}}]}] ```