Winning $1 Million Illinois Lottery ticket sold in Wauconda

WAUCONDA, Ill. - A small neighborhood convenience store in downtown Wauconda has sold a winning Lotto ticket worth $1 million dollars.

This lucky player is now the 11th Illinois Lotto player to win a prize of a million dollars or more since January 2022.  

The winning ticket was sold at Minute Man, located at 205 N. Main St. in Wauconda, and matched all six Lotto Million 2 numbers in the Thursday, October 27 drawing: 2-6-16-21-44-48.

Minute Man convenience store has been operating in the community for over 70 years, and the manager of the store believes it was a local customer that snatched up the winning Lotto ticket.

"I’ve worked at this store for over 28 years and know almost every customer by name - we are like family here," said Jerri Blanton, Manager of Minute Man. "I don’t know who bought the winning ticket, but I can almost guarantee that it’s a regular Lotto player from our area." 

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This is the second time that the Wauconda retailer has sold a winning Lottery ticket. In 2019, the convenience store sold a winning jackpot ticket worth $6.25 million to a local customer. 

"I think this store can now qualify as a ‘lucky’ store," exclaimed Bill McCloskey, COO of Minute Man. "We currently operate 12 stores in the Chicagoland area, and the Wauconda store has by far celebrated the most lottery wins in the past three years."

Retailers who sell winning tickets also have good reasons to celebrate as these wins bring their business a cash selling bonus of one percent of the prize amount.  For Minute Man, that means a bonus of $10,000 for selling the winning ticket.

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When asked what he plans to do with the bonus, McCloskey said, "not sure what right now, but we plan to use a portion of the money to do something special for our dedicated employees, and then the rest will be invested back into the business."  

The lucky Lotto winner has one year from the date of the winning draw in which to claim their prize.

Lotto is an Illinois-only game that is played three times a week on Monday, Thursday and Saturday, and the current jackpot is $2.75 million for tonight’s draw, Saturday, Oct. 29.