An Illinois player is feeling the holiday cheer in a giant way after winning an $880,164 lottery jackpot right before Christmas, the prize was won from an online "Fast Play Twenty 20s" ticket. This win marks the game's sixth-largest jackpot this year, with one fortuitous player setting the record for the biggest windfall, pocketing nearly $1.25 million back in July.
The "Twenty 20s" game, described by lottery officials as a progressive jackpot game, begins with a pot of $50,000, swelling with each ticket bought throughout the state until someone hits the jackpot, now this lucrative windfall was not a solitary event—over 80,000 winning tickets for the same game have been purchased in December alone according to CBS News, leading players to win collective prizes totaling more than $4.6 million.
Meanwhile, the Illinois Lottery reminds those who played in 2023 to check their old tickets as there are still over $4 million in unclaimed prizes lingering with two tickets approaching expiry in the first half of 2024, details on these and other unclaimed jackpots are available for hopeful winners or forgetful participants.
The prizes left on the table include a $225,000 Lucky Day Lotto jackpot won in Bellwood in April and another jackpot of $450,000 won in Skokie in June with both nearing their expiration one year from the draw date, giving winners just a few months to come forward, a full list of unclaimed prizes is published for hopeful players with potential windfalls slipping away if unclaimed, a stark reminder amid the joy of recent wins stated by NBC Chicago.
