NBC 5 Investigates requested an on-camera interview with a lottery official, but, to date, no one has been available because the office is in the middle of a legislative session, Powers said. That implies that a ticket could be on sale for nearly three months with no top prizes available. Powers did not detail how long that process takes, but the Instant Game Closure Policy says the goal is to have “all unsold game tickets returned from retailers within 10-12 weeks after the start of the process.” “Once a Clean-Up Memo is issued, our Lottery Sales Representatives, who regularly visit our retailers every three to four weeks to service them, collect tickets that are to be returned.” “Clean-up occurs when the top prize tickets are claimed by the players,” Powers said. Meghan Powers told NBC 5 that the lottery wants to “ensure consistency in how games are identified for clean-up and how and when that message is communicated and carried out by our staff.' “I think they should take them out of circulation.”Ī spokesperfor the Illinois Lottery said the lottery follows its Instant Game Closure Policy.' “You’re deliberately kind of tricking people into buying these,” said Christine Nieves. “That’s a rip-off,” said Annyce Leonard. “If someone already claimed the ticket, then why do you keep selling them just to keep people’s money?” NBC 5 Investigates showed these games to people outside a lottery retail store.

“When you’re buying a Mega Millions ticket or a Powerball ticket, the odds are infinitesimal, but you have actual odds of winning,” said historian Jonathan Cohen, author of the new book “For a Dollar and a Dream: State Lotteries in Modern America.' “But when you’re buying a scratch ticket that promises a $1 million jackpot, and it turns out that $1 million jackpot has already been won by someone in Evanston, then you have, actually, no chances of winning … and it’s only by going on their website and scrolling down and opening up tab seven and seeing that two of the prizes have been won – that, to me, seems just an extra level of unfairness.”

And many ticket-buyers don’t see the written disclaimer until after they’ve bought the ticket. For one thing, it discloses at this site all the top prizes that have been claimed and cashed in for every game. And every lottery ticket has fine print on the back warning that “instant tickets may continue to be sold even when all top prizes have been claimed.”īut many people don’t know about the website or don’t have the means to check it whenever they want to buy a ticket. It’s something the Illinois Lottery readily acknowledges. Christmas tree lighting Chicago 2023: What to know and how to watch live

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