Winner was sure the official email was a scam

By Kate Northrop

ROCKFORD, Ill. — An Illinois man was moved to tears when he realized that the official email from the Illinois Lottery alerting him to a $1.1 million Lucky Day Lotto jackpot win was real.

One lucky Illinois resident was hit with a sudden wave of emotion on the golf course when it dawned on him that he had really won a $1.1 million Lucky Day Lotto jackpot.

On Sunday, July 27, the Lucky Day Lotto jackpot was hit by one fortunate player who purchased his ticket online. Little did he know that he would be showing up at the Illinois Lottery Prize Center in Rockford to claim it just days later.

"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 calling the Illinois Lottery, I still wasn't convinced. As the old saying goes, 'The hay's not in the barn yet.'"

His ticket had matched all five numbers in the drawing — 14, 22, 23, 32, and 36 — to beat the odds of 1 in 221,759 and hit the jackpot, which had gone 20 drawings without a winner.

The winner's initial dismissal suddenly turned into a moment of elation in the middle of a golf outing.

 "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 recalled in a press release. "Tears came to my eyes. It was incredibly moving."

When he visited the Lottery to make the claim, Lottery staff asked him what he plans on doing with the newfound fortune, after which the winner laughed.

"Try and keep the money away from my wife," he quipped. "We're both retired and live simply, so we'll keep most of it in the bank for a rainy day. But we'll celebrate and splurge with a vacation to Florida or California — and my wife's already eyeing a kitchen remodel... we'll see about that."

The Lucky Day Lotto jackpot reset to its starting amount of $100,000 following "My Hole-in-One's" win.

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. Drawings are twice a day, at 12:40 p.m. and 9:20 p.m. Central Time. The jackpot increases by $50,000 every time a drawing occurs without a winner.

The Lucky Day Lotto jackpot currently stands at $100,000 for the next drawing on Saturday, Aug. 9 at 12:40 p.m. 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.

(Click to display full-size in gallery)The anonymous winner of a $1.1 million Lucky Day Lotto jackpot was moved to tears after discovering his email notification about the win was real.