Illinois player wins $700K off a lottery ticket

An Illinois lottery player has much to be happy about after the anonymous winner snagged $700,000 off the Lucky Day Lotto game with a ticket bought at Jewel-Osco.

The six-figure prize came as a surprise to the winner, who admitted that they weren't an avid lottery player per se but were in the habit of purchasing a ticket while doing their groceries.

Lady luck strikes when you least expect her

"Occasionally when I go to the grocery store, I add a Quick Pick lottery ticket as part of my shopping list. I didn’t even find out I won until a week or so after the drawing," the person said, admitting that they didn’t find out about the win immediately, nor what the amount they had won was.

"That’s when I went to a Lottery machine to check if my ticket had won, and the machine said ‘Congratulations, You Won’ but I didn’t know what the prize was," they continued. However, realization soon dawned.

The prize was the attractive $700,000, a sum that was hard to wrap one’s mind around, the winner told the Illinois Lottery as part of the official press statement.

With winning numbers 11-13-21-33-35, the person admitted that they had wondered about winning the lottery and what it would actually feel like, but they never imagined that they would come close to bagging such a huge sum of money at all!

Anonymity is winner’s prerogative in Illinois

Of course, there was a lot of excitement, but also anxiety – what if the ticket was a mistake? Would it make sense to get one’s hopes up, the winner wondered? Thankfully, the Illinois Lottery was happy to clarify the situation, confirming that the player had indeed won the aforementioned amount!

The winning ticket was purchased at 4660 West Irving Park Road, Chicago’s Irving Park neighborhood. The winner has chosen to stay anonymous as state laws allow for it.

Image credit: Illinois Lottery