The big winner of Wednesday night’s Powerball $1 billion jackpot was in Los Angeles, but an unnamed person also hit the big time after buying a $1 million ticket from an Elmhurst liquor store.
Across Illinois, eight lottery players are likely celebrating this morning after winning big in Wednesday night’s drawing, according to Illinois lottery spokeswoman Jennifer Born.
The Elmhurst buyer snared the winning ticket at Williams Liquors & Tobacco, 925 S. Elmhurst Road, and won $1 million after matching all five numbers to snag the second top prize in the historic drawing.
Jay Patel, 31, manager of the store, said that the winning ticket was sold Tuesday evening, July 19, around 6:30 p.m. The last big winner sold at his store was in November of 2022 for an Illinois Lottery Instant Ticket winner worth $400,000, according to Born.
Patel said they had no idea about the big winner until they saw the news vans were in the parking lot of the store, that his family owns, this morning.
“I literally don’t know, if somebody is trying to prank with me or something like that,” said Patel, who said he has been store manager for about four years.
Patel confirmed that the store was recording more customers than usual on Thursday morning, but didn’t know how it would affect business going forward.
“I don’t know, but this is the first time, ” Patel said. “Because that’s the biggest jackpot we ever had.”
Born said Thursday afternoon that the Elmhurst winner has yet to come forward, and if the winner wishes to stay anonymous, they will not be able to release any further information.
Illinois recorded some other big winners in the drawing, including $50,000 tickets sold at the Love’s Travel Stop, 4628 S. Main St., in Rockford; the Thorntons Gas & Food Mart, 2201 N. Green Bay Road, Waukegan; Casey’s General Store, 520 W. Peru St., Princeton and Shell Gas Station, 1002 Cameron Drive, Durand.
