Regular Player Takes The Top Prize
Employees at a grocery store in River Grove are buzzing with excitement after selling a $4.85 million winning Lotto® ticket over the weekend.
The winning ticket was sold at Rich’s Fresh Market, located at 3141 N. Thatcher Ave. in River Grove, and matched all six Lotto numbers in Saturday evening’s drawing, 8-12-14-22-27-36, to win the jackpot.
“We know who bought the winning ticket – he is one of our regular customers,” exclaimed Lucas Bujak, General Manager of Rich’s Fresh Market.
“The gentleman came into the store on Sunday morning and began inserting his tickets into the Lottery machine. One of my employees jokingly asked him if he won, but before he could answer, the customer almost fainted,” said Bujak.
And then according to his employee, a few minutes later, the customer began shouting, “I can’t believe it, I actually won the Lotto jackpot – I guess I can now quit my job.”
This lucky player is now the 10th Illinois Lotto player to win a prize of a million dollars or more since January 2022 – and this is the second largest Lotto jackpot win since April 2022.
“I’ve been with the company for over 20 years and our grocery-store chains have sold a lot of winning Lottery tickets. However, this is the biggest one we’ve been a part of – thanks to our loyal customers,” added Bujak.
Retailers who sell winning tickets also have good reasons to celebrate as these wins bring their business a cash selling bonus of one percent of the prize amount. For Rich’s Fresh Market, that means a bonus of $48,500 or selling the winning ticket.
Winners have one year from the date of the winning draw in which to claim their prize.
The Illinois Lottery encourages all lucky winners to write their name on the back of their ticket and keep it in a safe place until they’re ready to claim their prize. Winners should visit IllinoisLottery.com/winning to learn how to claim their prizes.
Lotto is an Illinois-only game that is played three times a week on Monday, Thursday and Saturday, and the current jackpot is at $2 million for tonight’s drawing, Monday, October 17.
