Joe Mahr – Page 29 –

Scratch-off lottery tickets, some with handmade signs advertising unpaid prizes, are shown at Mare's Mini Mart & Deli on Chicago's Northwest Side. A Tribune investigation found the Illinois Lottery collected hundreds of millions of dollars from selling tickets to its biggest-prize instant games in which it did not award all of the grand prizes.

Lawmakers question delay in replacing controversial lottery manager

June 14, 2024 at 6:42 p.m.

Illinois lawmakers Thursday questioned what's taking so long to pick a new firm to run the lottery — the state's most lucrative moneymaking venture — amid years of controversy and...

Scratch lottery games in the Illinois Lottery.

Illinois Lottery director questions privatization model

May 22, 2019 at 11:24 p.m.

Seven years after Illinois heralded privatization as the cure for lagging lottery sales, the state's latest lottery director now says he's not sure the model works. The private firm hired...

Family recalls Wheaton College student who died in track meet accident

May 22, 2019 at 11:20 p.m.

A Wheaton College student was killed Saturday after being accidentally hit by a hammer during a hammer throw event at a track and field competition. Ethan Roser, 19, a freshman...

<strong>NAME:</strong> Richard "Dick" Devine

Public money goes to private lottery firm’s secretive advisory board

June 14, 2024 at 6:43 p.m.

Taxpayers were told not to worry when Illinois became the first state in the nation to hire a private firm to manage a state lottery. The state had shut down...

The Daley Center in Chicago on April 22, 2015. A Cook County judge has ordered the halting of an unusual police retirement pay tactic that critics said improperly padded pensions.

Judge orders end to police pension-padding tactic used by suburban officers

May 22, 2019 at 11:16 p.m.

A Cook County judge has ordered the halting of an unusual police retirement pay tactic that critics said improperly padded pensions and played a role in a scandal that sent...

Taxpayers pay millions in bonuses to lottery firm’s staff despite poor performance

June 14, 2024 at 6:44 p.m.

Illinois taxpayers have funded about $2 million in "retention" bonuses for employees of a private firm managing the lottery despite the firm performing so poorly Illinois is working to replace...

Illinois Lottery’s private manager faces 2nd lawsuit alleging fraud

May 22, 2019 at 11:14 p.m.

A second lawsuit has been filed accusing the Illinois Lottery's private manager of defrauding players after a Tribune investigation found the lottery did not award many of the biggest prizes...

Lawsuit accuses Illinois Lottery manager of fraud in instant games

June 6, 2018 at 1:15 a.m.

Three lottery players and a downstate bar have accused the Illinois Lottery's private manager of defrauding scratch-off players and retailers after a Tribune investigation found the lottery did not award...

John Sullivan, shown in his Oak Lawn home in 2014, thought he was renting his house to a corporate executive and his family. Instead, he ended up renting to a couple with a history of allegations of fraud. He says they paid little in rent, had to be forced out through a lengthy legal action, trashed his house and stole his appliances.

Aging ex-con couple charged with fraud a year after Tribune investigation

May 22, 2019 at 11:00 p.m.

A year after insisting that he had long reformed his ways, a convicted con artist and his wife were arraigned Thursday on felony charges alleging they stole more than $100,000...

Harvey diverted water money it owes Chicago to payroll, college fund: allegations

June 6, 2018 at 5:21 a.m.

A struggling south suburb was supposed to use a special pot of money to pay off millions in past due water bills to Chicago, but court filings allege some of...

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