A Naperville Powerball winner stands to collect a million-dollar prize in Illinois, and they won it “the hard way.”
Just before the Illinois Lottery expanded to three Powerball drawings a week, the (so far) anonymous player proved that the third drawing isn’t necessary for winning big.
While the victor has months to claim the prize, other players only have a few hours to get in on the first new Monday Powerball drawings. Players should note that another drawing doesn’t mean they’re more likely to win, though.
What we know about the Naperville Powerball winner
According to the Illinois Lottery, the player bought the ticket at the BP on Brookdale Road in Naperville. The winning ticket matched the five white numbers. Those were 1-4-11-59-67. Matching those five numbers is worth $1 million before taxes.
Had the ticket also matched the Power Ball 10, it would have claimed the progressive jackpot. At that time, the jackpot was worth $173.5 million.
The station’s manager, Laura Espinoza, says she does not know who the winner is yet. Nonetheless, Espinoza expects a bump in the station’s traffic:
“This win is great and means a lot to our business. Lottery brings in a lot of regular customers, and we get to know them and the games and numbers that they play. This win will bring more customers into our store.”
The sale represents a windfall for the store as well. In Illinois, retailers who sell such tickets get a 1% bonus. That means a cool grand for the station just for selling one $2 ticket.
All IL Lottery retailers who sell Powerball tickets are about to get more chances at similar bonuses, although the odds of them getting any haven’t changed.
New Monday Powerball drawing starts tonight
From here on out, Powerball will conduct drawings every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday evening. That means there are more chances to match up numbers each week. However, the odds of any single play winning are exactly the same as before the expansion.
The field of eligible numbers for drawings resets between each pull. For that reason, the odds wouldn’t change even if there were 23 drawings each week. For example, the odds of matching all five white numbers are 1 in 11,688,054.
As this Naperville Powerball winner is the seventh person to win a prize of at least seven figures, the race is on to become the eighth. With three Powerball drawings each week, the wait may not be long.
