Illinois Lottery
Illinois Lotto 
The Illinois State Lottery was formed way back in 1974 and is run by the Illinois government. It is one of the most long established lotteries in America and in the days when it began, US lotteries were only really found in the north east and mid west regions of the country. Illinois is the only state to have its own state lotteries (as well as the multi-state Mega Millions offering) televised right across the nation, via WGM America. Money earned by the Illinois Lottery and any prizes that go unclaimed are used to help and support schools and education in the state of Illinois. There are various different games that the Illinois Lottery runs, including Pick 3, Pick 4 which are drawn twice a day, Little Lotto which is drawn each night and there are also a number of scratch card games. Illinois’ main lottery game, though, is the Illinois Lotto and is the game that will be concentrating on here and reviewing in full…
Illinois Lotto Overview 
Illinois’ premier lottery the Illinois Lotto is drawn 3 time per week on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays at 21.22 local time. You can watch the Illinois Lottery draws take place on Chicago’s WGN-TV channel – during the stations’ news bulletins. February 1983 saw the very first draw of the Illinois Lotto, 9 years after the State Lottery was first formed. The Lotto matrix has been changed at various times over the years which we will write about in a bit more detail below. The Illinois Lotto has created a few new records in its history for jackpot wins and is one of the larger of the US lotteries, with a fantastic following of regular and new supporters each week. Having fully looked into this particular lottery, we are very much happy to recommend it as one to take part in if you are looking for a good one to play in but are unsure of which one to choose.
How It Works…
The Illinois Lotto uses what’s known as a 6/52 matrix which means that when playing the Lotto, you need to select 6 numbers from a pool of balls numbered 1 to 52 – if you match all 6 numbers drawn then you will be a jackpot winner. There are other cash prizes to be won too, if you match either 5 of the numbers drawn, 4 numbers or even just 3. A Quick Pick facility is available when playing the Illinois Lotto similar to the “Lucky Dip” that is used in the UK National Lottery or Europe’s Euromillions – which means you can get the computer terminal to select all your Illinois Lottery numbers for you. If you wish to play in this lottery, the cost is $1.00 per entry.
Who Can Play?
As with the majority of lottery games in the U.S.A., in the past, only citizens living in the State of Illinois were allowed to play in any of the Illinois Lottery games including the Illinois Lotto - you would have had to purchase your lottery tickets from an authorized retailer based in Illinois. Now, however, with the welcome presence of authentic online lottery ticket agencies such as TheLotter you are able to select your Illinois Lottery numbers online and purchase your tickets and it doesn’t matter where in the world you live. This is brilliant news if you live outside of Illinois and the U.S.A. and want to play the Illinois Lotto and guarantee your entry into the next draw or just simply want to enjoy the convenience of being able to buy lottery tickets online. Once you have entered into the Illinois Lotto, you are then easily able to check the Illinois Lottery results online to see how you have done and to find out if you have become one of the IL Lottery lucky winners. You must be 18 years of age to be eligible to purchase a ticket for any of the Illinois Lottery games including the Illinois Lotto.
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Information & Background 
The very first Illinois Lottery tickets went on sale in July 1974 and the first draw took place in August that year. The game that we are reviewing here – the Illinois Lotto – was introduced in February 1983 and used a 6/40 matrix meaning that you had to select 6 numbers from a pool of numbers from 1 to 40. In February 1984 the Illinois Lottery introduced its “Quick Pick” option meaning that you could choose to have your numbers randomly selected for you by the computer. The Illinois Lotto matrix was altered from 6/40 to 6/44 in May 1984 meaning that the pool of balls to choose from had now been increased by 4 numbers. The feature “Advance Play” was introduced by Ill Lottery in December 1985.
A 2nd Draw…
In January 1986 the Illinois Lotto began having draws on a Wednesday. The matrix for the Illinois Lotto was changed again in May 1988 – this time from 6/44 to 6/54 – meaning that players now needed to select 6 numbers from a pool of balls numbered 1 to 54. August 1990 saw the Illinois Lotto expanded to twice-weekly drawings which were held on both Wednesdays and Saturdays.
A Mistake That Paid Very Well…
A simple but fortuitous mistake made John Mattinen the first Illinois Lotto player to win the Lotto jackpot twice on the same ticket when he bought a ticket with 2 of the very same selection of numbers which were copied in error! He won $20.8 million in March 1992. The Illinois Lotto produced its one hundredth jackpot of $10 million or more in December 1992 when the lottery jackpot reached $15 million. The Illinois Lotto’s matrix was again changed in April 1999 – from 6/54 to 6/52 – meaning that players now have to pick 6 numbers from a pool of 52 balls. This matrix is still in operation today.
A 3rd Draw…
A third draw was added to the Illinois Lotto in April 2005 – taking place on Mondays - taking the total number of weekly draws to three – Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays.
What Are The Odds?
The odds of winning on the Illinois Lotto are very favorable when compared to many of the lotteries out there, especially the Multi-State lotteries. The chances of winning an Illinois Lottery – Illinois Lotto jackpot are 1 in 10.17 million – for these odds you could be one of the Illinois Lotto jackpot winners. For one of the prizes on the second level, the odds come in at 1 in 3.9 million. The likelihood of winning a third tier prize comes in at 1 in 656 and for a prize on the fourth tier, the odds are reduce right down to just 1 in 34. The overall odds of you winning any prize in the Illinois Lotto are a very reasonable 1 in just 32.
Record Jackpots… 
The Illinois Lottery’s very first million dollar lottery winner was a lady called Irene Halley who struck lucky in October 1974. Ten years later in September 1984, a record was created when Michael Wittkowski became the winner of the largest lottery jackpot awarded to a single winner in North America when he won a $40 million Illinois Lotto Grand Prize. Another record was set in April 1989 when the Illinois State Lottery produced the highest ever North American lottery jackpot at the time which was $69.9 million. It was shared between 4 lottery winners The record for the largest lottery prize ever awarded to a single winner was broken in August 1989 when the Madigan Partnership enjoyed a win of $42 million in the Illinois Lottery. This record for the largest amount ever won by a single lottery winner in history, was equaled in May 1990 when the Sherwin Family Partnership won $42 million on the Illinois Lotto.
Rollovers = Much Bigger Jackpots… As a result of “rolling over” 7 times, the Illinois Lotto created its second highest ever jackpot of $61.5 million in March 1991. It was won and shared out between 3 lottery winners. Illustrating how powerful a “rollover” can be, a $65.5 million jackpot was produced by 8 consecutive “rollovers” in October 1991 and was shared by 3 winners. This was the second highest jackpot ever at the time. Yet another record was created by the Illinois Lotto in June 1995 when Arthur and Julia Britton became the lucky couple to win a $45 million jackpot – the largest ever to date to be won by a single lottery winner. Since then, the Illinois Lotto jackpot has reached $36 million in 1997 and $33 million in March 2001, when it was won by Eddie and Eunice Suber who were the only winners.
How Are Jackpots Paid?
As an Illinois Lotto jackpot winner, you would have a choice in how you are able to receive your winnings. You could choose to have either a single cash lump sum payment or an annuity prize. Should you win the lottery jackpot with Illinois Lotto and choose to receive an annuity as opposed to a lump sum, the winnings would be paid to you in 26 annual installment payments over a 26 year period. In terms of value, if you chose to take the cash lump sum payment as an Illinois Lotto jackpot winner, you would receive 50% of the annuity value that you would be paid in installments over the 30 year period. If choosing to receive the cash lump sum option instead of the annuity payments for a jackpot win, you need to exercise this option within 60 days of the actual draw taking place – if you do nothing then your winnings will automatically be paid to you in the form of the annuity with annual payments. For prizes worth up to $600, you can collect your Illinois Lottery winnings in cash from any lottery retailer. If you have won anything from $600 but less than $1 million you can complete a claim form whilst validating your ticket at any Illinois Lottery retailer and send it in the mail. Your winnings will then be mailed to you by check within 4 to 6 weeks. If you should win any prize greater than $1 million, you will need to call the Lottery Claims Office to make your winning claim. If you play lottery online however, you need not be concerened with any of the above information as you accredited lottery ticket sales company - such as TheLotter - will take care of all these details for you.
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