An Illinois Lottery player has awoken this morning to being $23.75 million richer after winning the Lotto jackpot last night.
The winning ticket was purchased at a BP gas station, located at 400 E. 95th St. in Chicago.
This is the largest Lotto prize won this year and the second largest in more than seven years.
“I can’t believe it, the winning jackpot ticket was actually sold here,” said Tanveer Haroon, co-owner of the BP gas station. “We’ve owned this family business for more than 10 years and this is by far the biggest winning jackpot ticket we’ve ever sold at our store – I’m so happy.”
When asked if he knew who might have bought the winning ticket, Haroon said, “I don’t know but I have a good feeling that it’s one of our regular customers. We have many that frequently buy Lotto tickets – I bet it’s one of them. But no matter what, I’m just so excited for the lottery millionaire.”
For selling the winning ticket, Haroon will receive a bonus of $237,500, one percent of the prize amount. Haroon said he’s not sure what he’ll do with the winning bonus but he does plan to do a little celebrating with his family.
The jackpot run began over 11 months ago on Oct. 17, 2022, creating seven millionaires before Thursday’s winning ticket was sold.
Lotto is an Illinois-only game that has three drawings a week, occurring on Monday, Thursday and Saturday.