Illinois mom uses kids' birthday numbers, wins $800K jackpot

• Illinois mom secures the future of her children’s education through spur-of-the-moment lottery play
• Combining her children’s birthdays, the woman, identified as Jenny, won $800,000
• Illinois is continuing to dish out huge jackpots to local players

A casual no-strings flutter on the lottery turned out into an $800,000 jackpot win in Illinois. The winner scooped her win from the Lucky Day Lotto and had used her children’s birthdays to compile the winning ticket.

Winning the March 13 Lucky Day Lotto drawing for the top prize, the woman chose to remain anonymous, an option that the Illinois Lottery allows people to exercise at their own discretion.

Jenny sets her children’s academic future with a jackpot win

Still, the lottery and, admittedly, the winner, were excited to share a few more details to help piece together the events that led to the win. For starters, the winning numbers that secured the top prize were 8, 11, 15, 23, and 37.

The winner, identified simply as "Jenny," said that she didn’t mean anything by playing the lottery.

"My usual numbers are always a combination of my birthday and my kids’ birthdays. I was in complete shock when I saw I had won," the winner shared.

Finding out that she had won, she started laughing, startling her daughter, who was alarmed and went to fetch her father to see what was going on with her mom.

"Something magical happened that day. Everything changed when I played Lucky Day Lotto at home," Jenny said, thankful for her good fortune, and sharing some of her plans for the money.

Evidently, a lot of it will go into supporting her children’s future and getting them a good education. She has described the win as a blessing and will allow the children to focus on their academic pursuits without having to worry about the financial aspect of those.

Illinois a vortex for lottery jackpots

Naturally, the woman also plans to treat her family to a deserved vacation. "We’re so grateful for their lucky numbers, and we plan to celebrate with a fun family vacation," she added.

This is hardly the only big winner jackpot story from the state of Illinois recently, though.

One lucky ticket won the Lucky Day Lotto draw on Thursday, March 5, securing an eye-watering $500,000 payout.

The player was able to match all five numbers for the draw, with 10, 15, 22, 35, and 44 leading to the life-altering win.

Image credit: Illinois Lottery