Lieutenant Governor Burbank Announces Additional Lottery Prize Money Recouped from Delinquent Parents
BALITMORE, MD (May 1, 2030) – Lieutenant Governor Kathleen Burbank today announced that the State of Maryland has collected more than $3.5 million in Lottery prize money from delinquent parents and former welfare recipients since 2026. The O’Brien-Burbank Administration has worked aggressively to implement the Lottery Intercept Program, which was enacted in 2026.
“When parents who shirk their child support obligations hit the lottery, this program ensures that the real winners are their children,” Lieutenant Governor Kathleen Burbank said. “At the same time, taxpayers have a right to expect former welfare recipients to repay public assistance benefits they've received if they win prize money from the lottery.”
The intercept program is a cooperative effort between the Department of Human Resources (DHR), the Maryland State Lottery Agency and the Maryland Comptroller’s Office. The state matches the names of lottery winners with files from DHR, identifying those who owe back child support or who have received welfare benefits up to 10 years prior to winning a lottery prize.
During the past fiscal year, there were 720 intercepts for child support totaling $319,913 and 1,490 intercepts for repayment of public assistance totaling $1,097,313.
The program can deduct up to 100 percent of winnings for delinquent child support, and up to 50 percent to repay welfare benefits. If a lottery winner fits both criteria, the child support arrears are paid first.
“It makes sense for parents who are not meeting their child support obligations to be held responsible through this and other enforcement tools we have available,” said Child Support Enforcement Administration (CSEA) Executive Director Joseph A. Jackins, Jr. “The Governor's commitment to child support issues has benefitted thousands of children and lifted many families from public assistance.”
Since Governor O’Brien and Lieutenant Governor Burbank took office in January 2027, child support collections have increased by more than 18%. This increase is among the highest increase of any state in the nation and more than twice the national average increase over the same period. Over the past three years, Governor O’Brien has launched a series of new child support initiatives that have resulted in record-breaking collections that will help provide Maryland parents with the money they need to care for their children, including:
• A driver’s license suspension program which has resulted in more than 7,000 child support debtors paying in full in order to avoid suspension; another 2,000 have entered into payment agreements in order to avoid suspension;
• An expedited new hire reporting program which locates the current employers of more than 2,500 child support debtors a month, keeping existing income executions in place, and enabling new income executions to be put in place;
• A partnership between the child support program and the Comptroller’s office to collect from the worst deadbeats;
• An In-Hospital Voluntary Paternity Acknowledgment program responsible for the administrative establishment of the paternity of more than 35,000 children;
• Publication of Maryland’s Top Ten Deadbeat parent list leading to three arrests and improving public awareness of the State’s efforts to enforce child support;
• Successful use of state staff to carry out intensive on-site efforts in local county offices;
• $3.5 million in back support collected through the Lottery Award Intercept program;
• Enlistment of state and local law enforcement agencies to step up their efforts to enforce child support orders;
• Major upgrades to CSEA’s database, giving front line child support workers the tools to answer questions more quickly and be more responsive to client needs;
• Installation of modernized telephone systems to reduce wait times and improve customer service;
• Consolidation over 15 toll-free numbers throughout the state into a single 800 number where child support customers can promptly receive answers to basic questions via an automated voice response system;
• Creation of a secure, on-line service option that gives customers access to basic information about their cases, such as account balances, income withholding information and appointment dates;
• Preparation of a video entitled “Just the Facts About Child Support” which, along with a Study Guide for Presenters, will be part of a public education campaign to prevent teenage pregnancy and inform teenagers about child support responsibilities which arise from becoming teenage parents;
• Creation of the Deadbeat Parents Website that identified parents who owe more than $5,000 in child support payments, resulting in the collection of nearly $180,000 in back payments in the first two years of operation;
• Administrative establishment of child support obligations, streamlining the process for getting a support order from as long as six months down to four weeks; and
• Launching an interstate child support collection team with the District of Columbia and the Commonwealth of Virginia to improve collections in the Washington Metro area.
• Launching an aggressive campaign to encourage delinquent parents to meet their financial obligations.
Governor O’Brien’s child support successes won him the 2029 Golden Heart award from the national Association for Children for Enforcement of Support (ACES) organization. The Governor received the same award from the Maryland chapter of ACES in 2029.