Illinois will launch a new lottery program specifically for the six applicants who did not make it, so that they will now have another shot at winning and being able to operate their own recreational cannabis stores. This official new lottery was announced this past Friday, and it already has the new market buzzing with possibilities.
According to officials who commented on the new lottery process, those who were wrongly denied chances in the first three lotteries held this summer (lotteries that gave out 185 new licenses each) will now have another chance. The new licenses will be officially authorized by state law, which allows up to 500 new licenses total.
While the applicants who were wrongly denied won’t be guaranteed licenses, the digital lottery is meant to be a more fair system than the original lottery held, and the goal is to re-create what the odds of winning should have been originally.
When it comes to the former lotteries, a “clerical oversight in terms of data entry” led to the mistakes, according to Toi Hutchinson, senior adviser on cannabis to Governor J.B. Pritzker. This and other issues in the licensing system have delayed the official awarding of licenses by more than a year so far.
This new announcement came as Illinois also unveiled the 51 winners from the previous three lotteries. However, the official licensing for those winners is still delayed, as seven challenges are currently pending in court that could impact who is truly awarded at the end of the process. Cook County Judge Moshe Jacobius has even gone so far as to order the state to not to award any licenses until he rules on a case that has to do with applicants and the