News writer
While the Mega Millions jackpot continues to climb (up to $800 million for the Tuesday, September 10 drawing), there was a big winner in Chicago, with the lucky winner taking home $1 million.
An early celebration
The Mega Millions jackpot is still up for grabs — and it happens to be the seventh largest Mega Millions jackpot in the game's history. However, a player in Illinois is celebrating a little early after they won a cool $1 million during the September 6 drawing.
The winning white ball numbers for that September 6 drawing were 6, 23, 42, 59, and 63, and the Mega Ball was 25. The winning ticket matched all of the white ball numbers to win the $1 million prize in Friday's drawing.
The winning lottery retailer
The winning ticket was purchased at Gas Express, located at 501 W. 31st Street in Chicago's Bridgeport neighborhood.
Gas Express owner Faris Saleh told lottery officials:
I guess you can say "luck is in the air" at Gas Express in Bridgeport. This is the second big winning lottery ticket we've sold at our store this year — a $400,000 Lucky Day Lotto ticket in April and now a $1 million Mega Millions ticket — so exciting!
Since Gas Express sold the winning Mega Millions ticket, they will now receive a bonus of $10,000, which is equal to one percent of the prize amount.
While the winner has not come forward yet to claim their prize, Saleh told officials, “My employees and I are hoping that the winner is someone we know, a regular customer.”
And now that Saleh has that bonus money, they said they “plan to use some of the bonus to celebrate with my employees and use the rest to upgrade my gas station.”
Big wins in Illinois
Illinois seems to be the lucky state to buy winning Mega Millions tickets. Lottery officials said this recent $1 million win happens to be the seventh Illinois Lottery player who has won a prize of $1 million or more playing Mega Millions in 2024.
While they weren't all $1 million winners, there were also almost 66,000 winning Mega Millions tickets sold in the state for the September 6 drawing.
If you happen to be one of those lucky winners, you have one year from the date of the winning draw to claim your prize. If you do have a winning ticket, the Illinois Lottery encourages you to write your name on the back of the ticket and store it in a safe place until you are ready to come forward and claim your prize.
Mega Millions is played every Tuesday and Friday night. Tickets cost $2 per play, and players can add the Megaplier option for an additional $1 per play for a chance to multiply any non-jackpot prizes.
Of course, the next Mega Millions drawing will take place on Tuesday, September 10, at 10:00 p.m. CT, and ticket sales close at 9:45 p.m. CT.
Enjoy playing the Illinois Lottery, and please remember to play responsibly.
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