Whether your vice is drinking, tobacco, cannabis or gambling, Illinois is enjoying $3.47 billion from taxing it.

Holiday scratch-off tickets are a popular stocking stuffer. Illinoisans dropped about $2 billion on tickets in a year, and it’s the biggest moneymaker for the Illinois Lottery.

Anyone betting those lottery tickets they gifted will help education would lose.

Lawmakers sold the idea of a lottery with the promise the money would go toward education. But in reality, students never see the money.

Each year, tens of billions of dollars flow through Illinois state government.1 These flows all depend on methods of payment. In deciding on those payment methods, policymakers must consider a number of important factors, including security controls, cost effectiveness, accessibility, speed and allowance for choice. This report shows that by adopting best practices across all...

From the lottery, to the tollway, to two “temporary” income tax hikes, Illinois politicians have a history of broken promises about how they tax and spend residents’ money.