Illinois already has the lowest credit rating in the nation, and is going on 3 years without a budget at all, let alone the balanced budget that its state constitution requires.
How much money will the state lose if this happens?
asked Jun 16, 2017 at 17:40
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1 Answer
From your link:
The Sun-Times says Illinois reported $99 million in Mega Millions sales and $208 million in Powerball sales in 2016. About 40 percent of each comes back to Illinois in revenue.
That's about 40% of $307 million or $122.8 million. Of course, that's an annual number. It's about $336 thousand a day. There's also some loss from income tax paid on lottery winnings and sales fees, but that's much smaller. And it may be offset by substitute purchases including other lottery products.
It's worth noting that lotteries have up and down sales. Currently the Powerball is only $52 million, so sales are probably at a relatively low point. Mega Millions is both cheaper and has a bigger prize ($113 million), but it still is relatively low. It takes months to build a big jackpot, so it is unlikely that there will be one by the end of June. Mega Millions is a bit closer, perhaps a month or so.
All numbers are as of June 16th, 2017 and may increase by the end of the month (or reset to the minimum with a win).
Anyway, sales may be lower than average now. So they might lose less than they would with a bigger jackpot.
