An Illinois iLottery player from Sangamon County just claimed some serious prize money – $1,100,000 – after playing Lucky Day Lotto online.
The winner matched all five numbers for the April 30 midday drawing to hit the jackpot and become the latest Lucky Day Lotto millionaire.
“I absolutely couldn’t believe it, and subconsciously, I still don’t believe that I won,” said the lucky winner, who chose to remain anonymous. “Like everyone else, I play the lottery hoping to win a big jackpot, but when it actually happens to you, it’s pretty surreal.”
When asked who was the first person that he told, the newly-minted millionaire chuckled and said, “my wife.”
“When I called my wife at work and told her that I won a million dollars playing the lottery, she said ‘I don’t have time for this, stop joking around’ and was about to hang up the phone, so I took a screenshot of the message that I received from the Illinois Lottery and sent it to her – well, that pretty much left her speechless,” laughed the winner.
The Sangamon County man is now the third online Lucky Day Lotto millionaire, and the fifth Illinois Lottery player who has won a prize of a million dollars or more playing Lucky Day Lotto so far this year.
When asked what he plans to do with the prize money, the winner exclaimed “buy a new car!”
“My Chevy truck currently has over 200,000 miles on it, so I plan to replace it with a new Chevy truck. Also, a family vacation to Hawaii – it’s been my wife’s dream to go there. Additionally, my wife and I plan to donate a portion of the winnings to a local charity – the Visual Arts Association,” said the winner.
In total this year, nearly 4.5 million winning Lotto tickets have been sold, netting players over $25 million in prizes.
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.
Lucky Day Lotto is played twice a day, seven days a week. For more information or to buy tickets online, please visit illinoislottery.com.
About the Illinois Lottery:
Founded in 1974, the Illinois Lottery has contributed over $24 billion (since 1985) to the state’s Common School Fund to assist K-12 public schools, as well as hundreds of millions of dollars to the Capital Projects Fund and to special causes. For more information, visit IllinoisLottery.com.
