(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — More than 600 applicants are hoping to get lucky during the first of three lotteries for new marijuana store licenses in Illinois.
The state on Thursday is holding the first lottery drawing to award 55 licenses to applicants that scored 85% or better on their applications for recreational cannabis stores. The state says 626 applicants are qualified for the licenses.
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The long-awaited licenses were supposed to be awarded in May of last year, but were delayed over complaints surrounding a lack of equity and diversity.
More than 4,500 applications were initially submitted. The state then scored each application, originally only allowing those they deemed to have a perfect score to pass through. Under that classification, only 21 applications were deemed eligible. The state changed their threshold to allow applications with at least 85% of the maximum score to qualify, which left 626 applicants eligible for the licenses.
The second license lottery will be held Aug. 5, and the third on Aug. 19. In all, 185 new retail licenses will be awarded.
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