“We’ve had a huge growth spurt the last four years,” said Harold Mays, director of the Illinois Lottery. “Everybody engages with the lottery. It’s a very simple proposition.” Instant scratch tickets accounted for $2 billion or 57% of the $3.6 billion in total Illinois lottery sales last year, according to the state’s annual report on wagering for fiscal year 2023.
The Illinois Lottery has grown exponentially since its inception in 1974, minting thousands of millionaires, generating billions in revenue and dramatically broadening its portfolio of games. “We've had a huge growth spurt the last four years,” said Harold Mays, director of the Illinois Lottery.
Illinois Lottery celebrates 50 years of rich history, from pingpong balls and TV drawings to minting folk-hero millionaires
The Illinois Lottery is celebrating the 50th anniversary of its first drawing this week, a pioneering gamble that has become an enduring cash cow for the state, and a shared fantasy for millions of players.
Plunk down a couple of bucks, stick a ticket in your wallet and, for the better part of a week, there’s a chance you might become a millionaire.
Just ask Michael Wittkowksi, a blue-collar guy from the Northwest Side whose life changed as a 28-year-old in 1984 when he won $40 million playing Lotto — then the largest lottery prize in U.S. history — becoming a Chicago folk hero and star of the state’s nascent numbers game.
Wittkowski, a printer by trade, parlayed his newfound riches into a surprisingly normal if well-funded life, getting married and raising three sons far from the limelight in northwest suburban Inverness.
“I’m glad it happened to me,” said Wittkowksi, 68, long retired and living quietly in the same house for 30 years. “It’s made a huge difference in all of our lives.”
While the world has changed a lot in the last half-century, the dream has lost none of its luster. The lottery is coming off a record $3.6 billion in sales in fiscal year 2023, still the most of any wagering segment in Illinois despite the advent of casinos, sports betting and thousands of video gaming terminals across the state.
The Illinois Lottery has grown exponentially since its inception in 1974, minting thousands of millionaires, generating billions in revenue and dramatically broadening its portfolio of games.
“We’ve had a huge growth spurt the last four years,” said Harold Mays, director of the Illinois Lottery. “Everybody engages with the lottery. It’s a very simple proposition.”
Instant scratch tickets accounted for $2 billion or 57% of the $3.6 billion in total Illinois lottery sales last year, according to the state’s annual report on wagering for fiscal year 2023.
Lotto drawings generated $111 million in sales last year, roughly half that of multistate games Powerball and Mega Millions, which have larger jackpots. Illinois was one of the founding states for Mega Millions, which started as the Big Game in 1996. Powerball rolled out in 1992, and both multistate games are offered in Illinois.
Lotteries are now played in 45 states, but when Illinois held its first weekly drawing on Aug. 8, 1974, it was kind of a big deal.
When the lottery was signed into law in late 1973 by then-Gov. Dan Walker, Illinois was one of only 10 states to offer a lottery, where a 50-cent ticket and a complicated series of drawings could make one lucky winner a millionaire.
There was the Weekly Lotto: Match all five numbers and win $5,000. Match the two three-digit numbers in the Millionaire Game box and you were entered into a separate drawing to win a million dollars — after 30 million lottery tickets were sold.
Inaugural press coverage was profuse, following every beat of the launch, right up to crowning the first “instant millionaires,” Bill and Irene Halley of Franklin Park, during an elaborate drawing on Oct. 3, 1974, at the Gold Room of the Pick-Congress Hotel on South Michigan Avenue.
Many of the 158 qualifiers, culled from six weeks of lottery play, attended the first millionaire drawing. The payout was $50,000 annually over 20 years and a slice of instant fame that saw the couple feted on a tour that included a visit to the Chicago Playboy Mansion.
The Illinois Lottery has been evolving ever since — from launching televised drawings to privatizing operations — with varying degrees of success.
Initially staged at sites throughout the state, the Illinois Lottery became the first to broadcast its drawings live on local TV in May 1975, airing on WGN-TV and the WGN superstation.
Televising lottery drawings had previously been prohibited until Congress changed the law in early 1975.
The drawings bounced around on several Chicago stations before returning to WGN in 1994, making effervescent “Lottery Lady” Linda Kollmeyer something of a TV star as she announced numbered pingpong balls popping out of a machine for more than two decades.
WGN America — now known as NewsNation — dropped the drawings in 2014 as it converted from a superstation to a national cable channel. In 2015, the Illinois Lottery, which paid WGN-TV about $1 million annually to air two live broadcasts each day, pulled the plug entirely on television, opting for digital drawings.
The Illinois Lottery also became the first state to launch online ticket sales in 2012, Mays said. Online sales reached nearly $518 million in fiscal year 2023, according to state data.
Other innovations have been somewhat controversial.
In 2011, Illinois became the first state to privatize operations when it hired Northstar Lottery Group to run its games. Northstar promised to bring in $4.8 billion in profits during the first five years of the 10-contract, but fell short of its revenue goals and was terminated in 2017.
Northstar came under additional fire after a Tribune investigation found that the lottery did not award more than 40% of instant game grand prizes advertised from 2011 to 2015, creating a payout rate significantly lower than those in other states.
The investigation showed Northstar dramatically increased the number of instant tickets printed, offering bigger prizes to entice buyers. But as sales for each game eventually waned, Northstar allegedly pushed to remove the tickets from store shelves before all of the grand prizes were awarded.
That ostensibly made the games less lucrative for players, generating several class-action lawsuits alleging fraud.
British-owned Camelot Illinois took over from Northstar in 2018, promising revenue growth and instant games better designed to sell out tickets and award all prizes. Swiss-based Allwyn bought out Camelot in 2023, turning the Chicago office into its North American headquarters.
Keith Horton, who made the transition from general manager at Camelot to the same role at Allwyn, said the issues around instant game payouts have been “completely resolved” under new ownership.
“Since Allwyn came on board, we’ve worked closely with the Department of Lottery to ensure that there’s an orderly process to close out tickets once top prizes are won, and we’re very confident in that process,” Horton said.
Allwyn, which operates lotteries in European countries such Austria, Italy and the United Kingdom, handles everything in Illinois from selecting the games and providing the machines at 7,000 retail locations to marketing the lottery.
Horton points to a 23% increase in annual sales since Camelot/Allwyn took over lottery operations from Northstar in 2018 as a sign of its success. At the same time, Illinois remains the only state lottery Allwyn manages.
Illinois has the 12th-largest lottery in the U.S. by sales, with Florida, California and Texas topping the list.
Last year, the $3.6 billion in Illinois Lottery sales returned $882 million to the state, with most of the proceeds going to the Common School Fund.
Winners were paid nearly $2.4 billion, or roughly two-thirds of the money spent on lottery games, while retailers collected $174 million in commissions. Lottery expenses, including Allwyn, totaled $194 million, or 5.4% of ticket sales, according to state data.
Since its inception, Illinois Lottery sales have totaled over $83 billion, with $25 billion transferred back to the state.
That total includes $40 million allocated to the Wittkowski family 40 years ago, in what may have been the biggest game-changing moment in Illinois Lottery history.
In 1983, the Lotto game was streamlined to offer instant million-dollar payouts and weekly rollovers to build jackpots. The new rules came to fruition in a big way on Sept. 1, 1984, when Wittkowski won the $40 million Lotto jackpot after three weeks of rollovers and increasingly frenzied ticket sales, claiming what was then the largest lottery prize in U.S. history.
The win was a family affair for Wittkowsi, who along with his brother, sister and father, chipped in $10 apiece to buy 40 tickets at the bygone Blatt Drugs on Irving Park Road.
When the numbers came up on the Saturday night TV drawing, he assumed there were several winners who would split the jackpot. By Sunday, Wittkowski realized he had the only winning ticket.
It was Labor Day weekend, so he planned to wait until Tuesday to stake the claim. On Monday morning, he got a little on-air nudge from Oprah Winfrey, then the new host of “A.M. Chicago” on WLS-Ch. 7, who told viewers that lottery officials were looking for the $40 million winner.
Wittkowski made the call, and a limo was dispatched to bring him in from his Albany Park home to the Chicago lottery office.
Greeted by lottery officials and then-Gov. Jim Thompson, Wittkowski was initially reluctant to sign the ticket, concerned about tax implications and insisting all four family members should be declared winners. Reassured the proceeds would be equally divided, Wittkowski relented.
“So we figured all that out, and about an hour later, I was in front of the cameras,” Wittkowski said.
Despite assurances, the first installment check was made out to Michael Wittkowski alone. He refused to endorse it.
In November 1984 — two months after he was declared the $40 million winner, Wittkowski successfully petitioned the Illinois Lottery Control Board to amend the claim form to include his father, Frank; his sister, Eileen; and his brother, Daniel, as equal partners in the winnings, avoiding a hefty gift tax if he distributed the money himself.
The payout was $40 million over 20 years, which meant an annual check of $2 million for the family partnership. Divided four ways, that was $500,000 per year for Wittkowski. After taxes, he kept about half of that total.
Wittkowski also kept his $25,000-a-year job as a press operator at Deluxe Check Printing in Des Plaines — for three months — before the constant stream of curiosity seekers made it impossible to continue.
“I had to end up talking to people all the time and running a four-color web press, and if you’re not paying attention, you get hurt,” he said. “So I decided that I was just going to be done with it.”
Winning the largest lottery prize in U.S. history brought a lot of attention — both wanted and unwanted — including bomb threats and unsolicited requests for money from around the world.
Wittkowski’s lottery win made him an instant celebrity in 1984, allowing him to rub elbows with some of the rich and famous in Chicago. Topping the list was an on-air visit with Cubs announcer Harry Caray at Wrigley Field during the team’s first postseason run in nearly four decades.
“Actually, I sat up in the box with Harry Caray for half an inning one time,” Wittkowski said. “That was kind of nice.”
He also got to meet two of his Blackhawks heroes — Stan Mikita and Bobby Hull.
In 1985, the lottery credited Wittkowski’s inspiring win with doubling ticket sales to more than $10 million per week, and fueling a gold rush from out-of-state players.
Wittkowski and his fiancee, Frances, were married in 1985 and later moved to Inverness to raise their three sons. As they now approach their 40th anniversary, the marriage has proved an even more enduring win, outlasting the lottery checks by 20 years and counting.
Along the way, he invested in two businesses — a liquor store in Streamwood and a bar in Bartlett — neither of which proved profitable. Wittkowski got out of the bar business in the mid-1990s and the liquor store in 2000. After that, he conserved his capital and spent his days as a full-time stay-at-home dad.
“I sat on my money for a while and just watched the kids grow — did all the coaching and stuff when the boys were young.”
The lottery checks stopped coming in 2004, and Wittkowski considers himself happily retired, spending time on the golf course among other leisure pursuits. While some of his business ventures proved less than lucrative, Wittkowski said he did not burn through his lottery winnings and is “still OK” financially.
Lottery jackpots have gotten much bigger in the 40 years since Wittkowski won $40 million. The minimum Lotto jackpot is $2 million, while Powerball and Mega Millions start at $20 million per drawing. Last year, rollovers boosted the average multistate jackpot north of $200 million.
In February 2023, Edwin Castro of California stepped forward as the biggest lottery winner in history when he claimed a record $2.04 billion Powerball jackpot.
The biggest winner in Illinois Lottery history remains anonymous.
In July 2022, the winning ticket for a $1.34 billion Mega Million jackpot was purchased at a Des Plaines Speedway gas station. The winner, who chose not to reveal their identity, claimed the record prize two months later, opting for a lump sum payment of $780.5 million, according to the Illinois Lottery.
The $1.34 billion Illinois Mega Millions windfall is only the seventh-largest lottery jackpot in U.S. history, making Wittkowski’s $40 million prize seem like a drop in the bucket four decades later. Even with inflation, a $40 million jackpot in 1984 would be the equivalent of about $121 million today — half the average Mega Millions or Powerball jackpot last year.
While Wittkowski won the biggest lottery prize in history circa 1984, he still takes his chances now and then that lightning will strike again.
“If I’m around and I got 20 bucks in my pocket, I’ll get a quick pick,” Wittkowski said.
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