Pritzker Administration Announces Results Of Qualifying Applicant Lottery To Award 55 Conditional Adult-use Cannabis Dispensing Organization Licenses

SPRINGFIELD – The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR or Department) announced today the results of the Qualifying Applicant Lottery for 55 Conditional Adult-Use Cannabis Dispensary Licenses (Conditional Licenses), from a pool of 626 unique applicants who scored 85 percent or greater in their applications.

Two additional lotteries are scheduled in the coming weeks for 130 additional Conditional Licenses.

Before Conditional Licenses are issued, the Department will initiate a review process to ensure applicants selected meet all statutorily required rules that must be fulfilled before a Conditional License can be issued.

“Illinois has taken the most comprehensive approach in the country to putting social justice at the heart of cannabis legalization, and today is an important day in expanding the diversity of the industry – on top of all the work we’ve already done to expunge convictions and investing tens of millions of cannabis revenue into the communities hit hardest by the war on drugs,” said Toi Hutchinson, senior advisor to the governor for cannabis. “We look forward to seeing businesses get off the ground and into this space.”

“We are pleased to announce the results of today’s lottery on this monumental day, which represents just one of many more steps we will be taking to help further the Illinois Adult Use Cannabis industry,” said Mario Treto, Jr., Acting Secretary of the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation. “We look forward to ensuring an inclusive and equitable cannabis program whose makeup accurately reflects the diversity of our great state of Illinois.”

No individual principal officer or applicant can receive more than two Conditional Licenses in this lottery. In the event a principal officer or applicant group has an application selected more than two times, the principal officer or the applicant group must complete the Department’s Abandonment Form to notify the Department of the BLS Region in which the applicant will be declining a Conditional License. Failure to submit the Abandonment Form within 5 business days after the Department posts the results of the Qualifying Applicant Lottery will result in the denial of all Conditional Licenses from this lottery to all applicants associated with the principal officer or applicant group that is over the limit.

Additionally, an applicant may not have a principal officer who is also a principal officer in more than ten Early Approval Adult Use Dispensing Organization Licenses, Conditional Licenses, and Adult Use Dispensing Organization Licenses. Should a principal officer find themselves in that situation, the principal officer must choose which license(s) to abandon by notifying IDFPR in writing. If the principal officer and/or applicant does not notify IDFPR, the Department will not issue the applicant all available conditional licenses drawn in this lottery.

IDFPR may also deny issuance of Conditional Licenses to any applicant who has a principal officer, board member, or person having a financial or voting interest of 5% or greater who is delinquent in filing any required tax return or paying any amount owed to the State of Illinois.

Those selected in this lottery who receive a Conditional License shall have 180 days to identify a physical location for the dispensing organization’s retail storefront. Groups unable to find a physical location within 180 days may receive an extension of an additional 180 days from IDFPR or be allowed to transfer their Conditional License to another BLS Region specified by the Department. If no extension is granted, the conditional adult use dispensing organization license shall be rescinded and awarded in accordance to the rules of the Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act.

The lottery results may change as a result of court orders or administrative review.

The second lottery, the Social Equity Justice Involved Lottery, will be conducted by the Illinois Lottery on Thursday, August 5, 2021.

The results of the Qualifying Applicant Lottery can be found below.

Results of Lottery for Qualifying Applicant Lottery
For Conditional Licenses Per BLS Region

The Qualifying Applicant Lottery, with 17 BLS Region drawings, was conducted on 7/29/2021 for 55 Conditional Adult Use Dispensing Organization Licenses (“Conditional License”). Below are the results of the drawings for each BLS region identifying the order in which each Qualifying Applicant was drawn. This order determines the order in which the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (“Department”) will award the available Conditional Licenses in each BLS region.

Applicants who have the opportunity to be awarded a Conditional License in the Qualifying Applicant Lottery are subject to strict limitations on the number of total licenses, as mandated by Public Act 102-98. An applicant’s failure to report to the Department that it has exceeded the statutory license limitations will result in the Department’s refusal to issue any of the Conditional Licenses resulting from the Qualifying Applicant Lottery.

Below are the Department’s certified results of the Qualifying Applicant Lottery for each drawing by BLS Region. Each list identifies the applicants who have an opportunity to receive a Conditional License from that drawing. In order to receive a Conditional License, each applicant must satisfy the statutorily mandated abandonment periods and tax-compliance checks.

Those applicants who have been selected for a conditional license are subject to the statutory requirements of the principal officer and license limitations and tax compliance checks, available here. If an applicant is required to abandon a license because it exceeds the license limitations, the applicant shall have five business days, from the day the results of the Qualifying Applicant Lottery are posted to the Department’s website, to abandon, and the next drawn applicant will be notified of their opportunity to be awarded a conditional license. Additionally, if an applicant cannot prove its tax compliance within 60 days of winning a conditional license in accordance with 68 IAC 1291.95, the Department will deny issuance of the Conditional License(s) and the next drawn applicant will be notified of their eligibility to be awarded a conditional license. Therefore, the result lists below may change pending the abandonment of an applicant’s conditional license and/or an applicant’s failure to prove tax compliance. This means additional applicants, whose draw order followed the abandoning applicant’s order, may become an awarded applicant.

The Department’s announcement of this list is its final administration decision for the Qualifying Applicant Lottery under Section 15-175 of the Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act (“Act”). The announced conditional licenses to be awarded may be subject to change as a result of court orders or administrative review.

BLS Region #1 (Bloomington) 1 Conditional License Available

BLS Region #2 (Cape Girardeau) 1 Conditional License Available

BLS Region #3 (Carbondale-Marion) 1 Conditional License available

BLS Region #4 (Champaign-Urbana) 1 Conditional License available

BLS Region #5 (Chicago-Naperville-Elgin) 36 Conditional Licenses Available

BLS Region #6 (Danville) 1 Conditional License available

BLS Region #7 (Davenport-Moline-Rock Island) 1 Conditional License available

BLS Region #8 (Decatur) 1 Conditional License available

17BLS Region #9 (Kankakee) 1 Conditional License available

BLS Region #10 (Peoria) 2 Conditional Licenses available

BLS Region #11 (Rockford) 1 Conditional License available

BLS Region #12 (St. Louis) 3 Conditional Licenses available

BLS Region #13 (Springfield) 1 Conditional License available

BLS Region #14 (Northwest Illinois nonmetropolitan) 1 Conditional License available

BLS Region #15 (West Central Illinois nonmetropolitan) 1 Conditional License available

BLS Region #16 (East Central Illinois nonmetropolitan) 1 Conditional License available

BLS Region #17 (South Illinois nonmetropolitan) 1 Conditional License available

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