Lottery Continues to Grow Funding to Support Common School Fund

CHICAGO, Oct. 31, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — As it celebrates its 50th anniversary, the Illinois Lottery is also celebrating another record-breaking year of sales and returns to the State of Illinois.

The Illinois Lottery is reporting sales of $3.86 billion and lottery proceeds of $883.6 million, which are both higher than the previous year. Fiscal year 2024 was notable for having five multi-state jackpots over $1 billion for the first time in lottery history. These five large jackpots figured prominently in the Lottery’s performance for 2024, marking the third consecutive year of record sales and returns to support the Common School Fund and other good causes.

“Since its inception, the Illinois Lottery has been a valuable state asset, and now 99% of proceeds go into the Common School Fund,” said Governor JB Pritzker. “We are proud this year to celebrate both the Lottery’s golden anniversary and another record year of net income, which will support our K-12 students and other good causes, such as supporting Illinois veterans and commission scholarships for the Illinois DREAM Fund.”

From May to October this year, the Illinois Lottery has been celebrating its 50th year by introducing a family of Instant tickets named Celebration with second-chance drawings. The Illinois Lottery also offered sweepstakes where players could win gift cards and held events throughout the State offering lottery-branded merchandise, gift cards and cash prizes. Other promotional activities included a tour of 50 lottery retail outlets across the State in their prize truck and a giant disco ball event in downtown Chicago, giving away $10,000 in prizes. The celebration involved lottery players and retailers alike, to recognize their ongoing participation and to say thank you.

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“For 50 years, the Lottery has been giving Illinois residents an opportunity to play, a chance to win, while making a difference at the same time,” said Illinois Lottery Director Harold Mays. “As we reflect on the Lottery’s rich history and the impact it has had, we’re particularly proud to announce another year of record returns to the State of Illinois to help supplement funding for K-12 public education and the specialty causes we support in Illinois.”

Illinois Lottery players won big during the period with over 117 million winning tickets sold, including 75 players who won prizes of $1 million or more, and one online player that won $552 million on Mega Millions in June 2024 – making it the largest lottery prize ever won online in the U.S.

Instant Ticket sales got a boost in 2024 with the introduction of the Illinois Lottery’s first $50 scratch-off ticket, at a time when most U.S. lotteries experienced Instant Ticket sales decline.

Since 2018, Allwyn North America has been the operating partner to the Illinois Lottery and works closely with the Department of Lottery to deliver these results. Supported by Allwyn’s state-of-the-art iLottery platform, online players and sales through the Lottery’s website and app have been growing year-over-year and generated $686 million in sales in the 2024 fiscal year, up by almost a third on the prior year.

“We continue to focus on modernizing the Illinois Lottery, with an emphasis on improving the retail experience and growing the Lottery’s digital presence,” said Keith Horton, General Manager and General Counsel for Allwyn North America. “With direct marketing activity to players built on data-driven and machine-learning models, stoked by engaging game content with the first $50 instant ticket and over 30 Fast Play games across retail, online and via Scan-N-Play, we continue to prepare the Illinois Lottery for the future.”

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The Lottery’s fiscal year 2024 runs from July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024. The operating income figure of $883.6 million is still to be audited and confirmed. Audited full year lottery returns to the state will be published later in the year. For more information, please visit www.illinoislottery.com.

About the Illinois Lottery
The Illinois Lottery, founded in 1974, has contributed over $25 billion to the State’s Common School Fund in support of K-12 public education in Illinois since 1985. The Common School Fund is the Illinois Lottery’s primary beneficiary, receiving nearly 99% of Illinois Lottery proceeds. The Illinois Lottery also supports various specialty causes as described in the Illinois Lottery Law (20 ILCS 1605/21.4). For more information about the Illinois Lottery and the causes we support, please visit IllinoisLottery.com.

About Allwyn North America
Allwyn is the private manager of the Illinois Lottery, working in partnership with the Illinois Department of Lottery to operate a modern lottery that benefits the people of Illinois. For more information see: www.Allwyn-NorthAmerica.com

MEDIA CONTACT: Jennifer Born
[email protected]
(312) 579-5134

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^{Photo caption: Illinois Lottery Des Plaines Prize Center supervisor, Kathy, holds up the big check that was presented to the $552 million Mega Millions jackpot winner.}

CHICAGO, June 10, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The lucky Illinois iLottery winner of the $552 million Mega Millions jackpot has come forward to claim their epic prize.

The winner, nicknamed “MEGA Millionaire,” snagged the jackpot after playing the game online – making this the largest jackpot won through iLottery in U.S. history!

“I was scrolling through my emails when I saw one from the Illinois Lottery saying to check my numbers because I won a prize,” shared MEGA Millionaire, who has requested to remain anonymous. “In the past, I’ve won $2 here or $5 there, so I assumed it would be similar.”

^{Image caption: The iLottery winner was in “shock and disbelief” when they saw this message on their computer screen the morning after the Mega Millions drawing.}

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The lucky winner continued, “You can’t imagine my shock and disbelief when I saw that I had won the jackpot amount of $552 million. I actually quit the app and then signed back in to double check and make sure it was real. It was real alright – but it still feels unreal!”

The MEGA Millionaire matched all five numbers and the Mega Ball, 19-37-40-63-69-17, to win the jackpot in the June 4, 2024 Mega Millions drawing.

“I was raised by a single mom and throughout my childhood, she had to work two jobs to provide for our family, to put food on the table, and for us to get an education,” expressed the grateful winner. “The day after I graduated from high school, I started working and I haven’t stopped since.”

The winner added, “I am a hard worker. I’ve spent my life as a laborer and once I was making a decent living, I asked my mom to retire and let me take care of her. It was my way of thanking her for how much she sacrificed for us. I haven’t told her yet about this life-changing windfall but when that time comes, we’re all going to be shedding some happy tears.”

Tuesday night’s historic online win was the ninth-largest Mega Millions jackpot prize in the game’s history and the second largest prize ever won in Illinois. In July 2022, a ticket bought at a gas station in Des Plaines won a $1.337 billion Mega Millions jackpot – which remains the largest lottery prize ever won in Illinois.

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“I’ve always dreamed of retiring early and enjoying life with my family. I think it’s safe to say my dream just came true,” exclaimed the newly-minted millionaire.

As always, the State of Illinois was also a big winner. During the Mega Millions jackpot roll that started on March 26, nearly $28 million in total ticket sales generated $11 million for the Common School Fund to support K-12 education in Illinois.

Illinois Lottery Mega Millions b-roll available for download here.

About the Illinois Lottery

The Illinois Lottery, founded in 1974, has contributed over $24 billion to the State’s Common School Fund in support of K-12 public education in Illinois since 1985. The Common School Fund is the Illinois Lottery’s primary benefactor, receiving nearly 99% of Illinois Lottery proceeds. The Illinois Lottery also supports various specialty causes as described in the Illinois Lottery Law (20 ILCS 1605/21.4). For more information about the Illinois Lottery and the causes we support, please visit IllinoisLottery.com.

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MEDIA CONTACT: Jennifer Born
[email protected]
(312) 579-5134

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/f180c0f5-60bb-489d-a277-6d6494a5addd

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/5b8181f7-7403-4abe-99be-e751ca720837

Lottery Funding to Support the Common School Fund

CHICAGO, March 19, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The Illinois Lottery today announced its results for the first six months of the 2024 fiscal year, in which the Lottery has generated $1.9 billion in sales leading to estimated returns to the State of Illinois of $456 million so far. 

These results continue the track record of performance established in recent years with record annual sales in FY19, FY21, and FY23, and record proceeds to the State of Illinois in FY22 and FY23. The major drivers of the record performance are the historic volume of multi-billion dollar multi-state jackpots and increasing digital performance.

Additionally, the Illinois Lottery raised over $4.1 million in the first half of the 2024 fiscal year for good causes in Illinois. The Lottery’s specialty scratch ticket program generates much needed revenue for causes such as homelessness, Alzheimer’s, breast cancer, Multiple Sclerosis, HIV/AIDS, police memorials, Special Olympics, and Illinois veterans. As of January 1, 2024, two additional good causes will benefit from lottery funding: the United Negro College Fund and DREAM Fund.

“For 50 years, the Lottery has provided Illinois residents with fun and entertainment, a chance to win, and an opportunity to make a difference through the funding we generate – with K-12 education as the Lottery’s primary benefactor during most of our time serving Illinois. The Lottery has contributed more than $24 billion in revenue to educational funding in Illinois,” said Harold Mays, Illinois Lottery Director.

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During the fiscal period, the Illinois Lottery launched its first-ever $50 Instant Ticket. The ticket was an ‘instant’ success with strong sales performance generating over $500,000 a week for the Common School Fund since mid-December.

“A $50 scratch ticket is not new to the lottery industry, but new to Illinois, and it’s proven to be popular with players and retailers alike,” said Mays. “Already, three Illinois players have won $1 million playing this game. There are three top prizes of $10 million still to be won, and we can’t wait to meet those lucky players.”

During the fiscal period, the year of the billion-dollar jackpot continued with three jackpots of $1 billion or more in Powerball and Mega Millions. The Powerball jackpot rolled to $1.0 billion in July 2023, Mega Millions rolled to $1.6 billion in August 2023, and then Powerball rolled to $1.7 billion in October 2023.

Illinois Lottery players won total prizes of $1.2 billion during the first six months of the 2024 fiscal year, including 26 players who won prizes of $1 million or more.

The largest prize won in Illinois during the reported period was a $23.75 million Lotto jackpot won on a single ticket bought from the family-owned BP gas station at 400 E. 95th Street in Chicago in September 2023. This was the largest Lotto prize won in Illinois in more than seven years.

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The Department of Lottery and operating partner Allwyn (formerly known as Camelot) have worked together since 2018 to responsibly grow the Lottery and generate funding to support education and good causes. Allwyn helps lotteries raise funding for good causes and the communities they serve, by driving innovation, digitization, customer insights, efficiency, and player safety.

“With a focus on digital innovation, combined with retail excellence, we are growing the Lottery’s player base and sales by offering engaging game content and new ways to play, backed by a data-driven and machine-learning based approach to Customer Relations Management,” said Keith Horton, Illinois General Manager and General Counsel for Allwyn North America.

The Illinois Lottery is supported by Allwyn’s iLottery platform, website, and app which have helped grow online players and sales year-over-year, with iLottery sales in the first half of the 2024 fiscal year up by a third over the same period in the prior year.

The 2024 Financial Year runs from July 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024, and the full-year audited returns to the state will be published later in the year.

About the Illinois Lottery
The Illinois Lottery, founded in 1974, has contributed over $24 billion to the State’s Common School Fund in support of K-12 public education in Illinois since 1985. The Common School Fund is the Illinois Lottery’s primary benefactor, receiving nearly 99% of Illinois Lottery proceeds. The Illinois Lottery also supports various specialty causes as described in the Illinois Lottery Law (20 ILCS 1605/21.4). For more information about the Illinois Lottery and the causes we support, please visit IllinoisLottery.com.

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About Allwyn North America
Allwyn is the private manager of the Illinois Lottery, working in partnership with the Illinois Department of Lottery to operate a modern lottery that benefits the people of Illinois. For more information see: www.Allwyn-NorthAmerica.com

MEDIA CONTACT:
Emilia Mazur
[email protected]
(312) 802-4303