One player's trash is another's treasure
By Kate Northrop
LOVES PARK, Ill. — An Illinois woman won $1 million on a Lucky Day Lotto ticket after another gas station customer decided they didn't want it and gave it to her.
An anonymous Illinois woman was not expecting a million dollars to quite literally be handed to her last week, and its thanks to a kind gesture from another nameless gas station customer.
She is shocked that, despite not even having bought a lottery ticket, she is the recipient of a $1 million Lucky Day Lotto prize for the April 22 midday drawing.
The customer who originally bought the ticket purchased it at Fas-Mart on East Riverside Boulevard in Loves Park and had given it to the woman before the drawing had occurred, the Illinois Lottery told Lottery Post.
Later, the ticket's new owner went on to check the results after the Monday midday drawing, which indicated she had matched all five numbers — 3, 4, 6, 25, and 27 — to win the game's progressive jackpot of $1 million.
With the prize money, the winner plans on buying a car, giving some to her grandfather, and finding a new place to live. She'll then save everything that's left over.
"Everything happens for a reason," the winner told the Lottery.
For selling the winning ticket, Fas-Mart receives a bonus of one percent of the prize amount, or $10,000.
According to the Lottery, over four million winning Lucky Day Lotto tickets have been sold so far this year, with total prizes amounting to more than $22 million for Illinois players.
Lucky Day Lotto is a draw game local to Illinois, in which players pick five numbers from 1 to 45 for a chance at the progressive jackpot. The jackpot increases by $50,000 every time a drawing occurs without a winner.
The Lucky Day Lotto jackpot currently stands at $300,000 for the next drawing on Thu., May 2 at 12:40 pm Central Time. The odds of matching all five numbers to win the jackpot are 1 in 1,221,759. Tickets cost $1 each.
All winning numbers, prizes and odds can be found on Lottery Post's Illinois Lottery Results page right after each drawing.
Had to read this twice. I'm sure other LP members have given away a ticket in the store. I do, but only to employees, however not very frequently.
Wish someone would bless me like that!
Nobody has ever given me a lottery ticket.
It was meant for her to win!
Wow!
Maybe he didn't want it because the guy operating the terminal printed out an incorrect ticket and Lottery tickets can't be cancelled.
That is why if it is incorrectly printed, I get it anyway. I also will purchase misprints that the cashiers need to get rid of . Never won a million dollars though....
Retailers will normally not make you buy a ticket that you don't want, even when the ticket is exactly what you asked for, such as a QP. It's not unusual for people to decide they don't like the numbers they got and decline the ticket, but if you've paid for it giving it to somebody else is unusual. I suppose some people would think the ticket is bad luck for some reason, and think that getting rid of it improves their chances.
Whatever the reason, it sounds like they wanted to get rid of it rather than specifically wanting to give it to this person, so I'm guessing they'll be kicking themselves if they hear the story.