An Illinois man was moved to tears when he realized that the official email from the Illinois Lottery informing him of a $1.1 million Lucky Day Lotto jackpot win was real.
One lucky Illinois resident was overcome with emotion on the golf course when he realized he had won the $1.1 million Lucky Day Lotto prize.
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On Sunday, July 27, a fortunate player who purchased his ticket online won the Lucky Day Lotto prize. He had no idea that only a few days later, he would be in the Illinois Lottery Prize Center in Rockford to claim it.
“I received an email saying that I won, but with so many email scams out there, I thought it was fake,” the anonymous winner, nicknamed ‘My Hole-in-One,’ told lottery officials. “Even after checking the winning numbers and contacting the Illinois Lottery, I wasn’t convinced. As the expression goes, ‘The hay’s not in the barn yet.'”
His ticket matched all five numbers in the drawing—14, 22, 23, 32, and 36—beating the odds of 1 in 221,759 and winning the jackpot after 20 draws without a winner.
The winner’s initial expulsion transformed into a moment of elation in the middle of a golf trip.
“I was out on the golf course a few days before I claimed the prize when it finally hit me—I really did win,” he said in a press statement. “It brought tears to my eyes. It was profoundly moving.
When he went to the lottery to make the claim, the staff asked what he planned to do with his unexpected windfall, to which the winner chuckled.
“Try and keep the money away from my wife,” he joked. “We’re both retired and live cheaply, so most of it will be saved for a rainy day. However, we will celebrate by taking a trip to either Florida or California, and my wife is already planning a kitchen overhaul; we’ll see how that goes.
The Lucky Day Lotto jackpot was reset to $100,000 following “My Hole-in-One’s” win.
Lucky Day Lotto is an Illinois-based draw game in which players select five numbers from 1 to 45 for a chance to win the progressive jackpot. Drawings happen twice a day, at 12:40 p.m. and 9:20 p.m. Central Time. Every drawing that does not produce a winner increases the jackpot by $50,000.
The Lucky Day Lotto jackpot is now set at $100,000 for the next drawing on Saturday, August 9, at 12:40 p.m. Central Time. To win the jackpot, you must match all five numbers. The odds are 1 in 1,221,759. Tickets are $1 each.
All winning numbers, prizes, and odds are available on Lottery Post’s Illinois Lottery Results page immediately following each drawing.
