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We’ve all asked ourselves the same question at least once before; what would I do if I won the lottery? Many people would be over the moon to have a sudden influx of money and already have all sorts of uses for it in mind. They could pay off debts, save for the future or retirement, travel and go on wild vacations, buy a house or new car they’ve always wanted, donate to charity, help friends and family, the list is endless.
While we all dream of hitting it big one day, winning the lottery became a reality for one couple when they won $250,000 in the Illinois state lottery. Susan Rick and her boyfriend, Danny Chasteen, thought they had caught a break and that things were finally looking up financially. They knew exactly what to use the money for, Susan wanted to cut back on her 7 day work week and Danny planned on fixing up the house. Unfortunately for them, the timing could not have been worse.
When they won the $250k the state of Illinois was in the middle of a crises in that no state budget had been passed or approved of yet. Lottery officials announced that they would not be paying off any winning lottery claims over $600 until the state budget crises was resolved. According to Illinois state law, for any lottery winnings over $25,000 the state comptroller must issue a check, but because lawmakers failed to pass a budget, the comptroller’s office did not have the legal authority to release the funds.
In effect, an estimated $288 million worth of lottery winnings could not be claimed by people who had bought winning tickets. Even though the state lotto would not pay out anything over $600, they still wanted people to play the lottery and didn’t suspended or restrict ticket sales.
While the state seems to think the IOUs they handed out to winners like Rick and Susan were good enough, Rick thought otherwise. He made an excellent point when he said that if the roles were reversed and he owed the state that money, they would undoubtedly take it any way they could even if it meant selling off his property in order to collect. The couple’s attorney agreed and released a statement saying that if it were a private business doing what Illinois had done in this situation, the state would quickly shut it down and charge the people running it with fraud.
All the people want is what they rightfully deserve, which is the money they won by purchasing a ticket and playing the lottery! Whether or not the state has passed a budget should not matter and Illinois needs better laws and protections for their citizens because what happened here is evidence of much bigger issues at play. In the end, Susan and Danny eventually got paid what they won, albeit months later and after they filed a lawsuit.
Watch the video below for the full story:
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