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Published: January 20, 2020

Illinois Lottery Awarded Nearly $1.7 Billion In Prizes In 2019

"The Illinois Lottery marked its 45th birthday last year, but there were plenty of other reasons to celebrate in 2019," Illinois Lottery Acting Director Harold Mays said, in the news release. "We want to celebrate our players, our winners, our retail partners and the contributions made by the people of Illinois to education and special causes through purchasing Lottery tickets."

Several of those 2019 Illinois Lottery winners were lottery players across the Chicago area.

CHICAGO, IL — The Illinois Lottery paid nearly $1.7 billion in prizes to winning players in 2019, and sold more than 100 million winning tickets, the lottery announced Thursday in a news release. A $1 million prize was claimed by 48 players in 2019, according to the news release.

The lottery also reported that the largest prize won was a $15.75 million Lotto jackpot in the April 11, 2019 drawing by someone who played on the Illinois Lottery mobile app, representing one of the biggest prizes won to date on the app, according to the news release.

"The Illinois Lottery marked its 45th birthday last year, but there were plenty of other reasons to celebrate in 2019," Illinois Lottery Acting Director Harold Mays said, in the news release. "We want to celebrate our players, our winners, our retail partners and the contributions made by the people of Illinois to education and special causes through purchasing Lottery tickets."

Thanks to its players an annual ticket sales of nearly $3 billion, the Illinois Lottery helped the State of Illinois win, as well, according to the news release. The Illinois Lottery contributes around 25 cents of every dollar spent on games back to the state for public schools, capital projects and other special causes, the lottery said, equaling $731 million for public schools (averaging out to $2 million a day) for public education in Fiscal Year 2019. The Illinois Lottery also paid retailers across the state $165 million in bonuses and commissions in Fiscal Year 2019, the news release said.