Free Republic

CHICAGO (CBS) — In a symbolic gesture to urge the governor and state lawmakers to come up with a budget, a group of community activists on Monday purchased Illinois Lottery tickets, and pledged to donate any winnings to the state. A week after Gov. Bruce Rauner signed stopgap legislation to resume payouts for Lottery winners – most of which had been halted due to the state’s budget impasse – a group of community leaders bought Powerball and scratch-off tickets on Monday.

The Illinois Lottery has "material weaknesses" in its internal financial controls — weaknesses that led to $200 million in reporting errors, a new state audit has found. In a report that already is sparking finger-pointing and drawing the attention of key lawmakers, Illinois Auditor General William Holland concluded that the mistakes had the potential to result in incorrect financial statements being issued both by the lottery and by the state of Illinois itself.

But I suppose it wouldn’t be entirely true to say that the Illinois lottery doesn’t have problems. After all, Jones has been spending quite a lot of the entity’s money jetting off to far off locations to complain about his job, and even state-run entities in economically illiterate states like Illinois have finite budgets. There’s only so much cash to go around. So after the little globe-trotting spree, it’s no wonder the Illinois lottery is having a little trouble cashing checks to winners. The Illinois Lottery bounced dozens of checks written to winners, many for scratch-off tickets worth $1,000.