Illinois Lottery players buy $75 million in tickets during Mega Millions run

Posted on October 24, 2018
Jason Schaumburg with the Illinois Lottery said Illinois lotto players bought $75 million worth of tickets in this latest jackpot run. (Pixaby)

 

By Illinois Radio Network/Benjamin Yount

SPRINGFIELD – You may not have won anything in the latest Mega Millions drawing, but the state of Illinois certainly did.

It looks like just one person won the billion-and-a-half dollar Mega Millions jackpot.  The winning ticket was sold in South Carolina.

But the state of Illinois hit a jackpot of its own with the Mega Millions-mania.

Lotto spokesman Jeff Schaumburg says players in the state snapped-up $75 million in tickets since July.

“With this Mega Millions draw we started to see upticks in mid-September,” Schaumburg explained. “So around the time Mega Millions hit 300 million, we started to see an uptick in this game for sure.”

The state gets 25 percent of that.

“In terms of lottery sales, 25 cents of every dollar in sales come back to the state. Primarily in education funding,” Schaumburg said “With this Mega Millions run, if you take 25 percent of $75 million, we’re somewhere around $20 million in revenue for the state at this time.”

Schaumburg said the Mega Millions run saw players buy almost as many since July as they did all of last year.

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