Illinois lawmakers demand lottery investigation

State lawmakers said that they want the justice to investigate the Illinois Lottery over how they manage the prizes.

US.- Both political parties in Illinois called for an investigation of how the Illinois Lottery is managing scratch-off games. According to a recent report, the former state lottery didn’t award most of the prizes that they promised in the biggest games they offer.

State Rep. Lou Lang, D-Skokie, said: “I just don’t think we should promise people things we don’t deliver. And if we say we have a game that’s going to pay X and it doesn’t pay X, then we’ve lied to the people who bought the tickets.” State Sen. Terry Link, D-Waukegan, state Rep. Scott Drury, D-Highwood and state Rep. David McSweeney, R- Barrington Hills also called for legislative hearings after the report was published.

The state gave the management of its lottery to Northstar Lottery Group, a private firm, in 2011. Reporters said that most of the biggest-prize instant games didn’t award all of their grand prizes, and some of them didn’t award any at all. Overall, the games awarded less than 60 percent of their grand prizes ever since the private firm took the responsibility of the former state lottery. House GOP leader Jim Durkin, said: “The integrity of the Illinois Lottery, at all times, must be maintained to the highest level.”