$10 Lands Aurora Woman Winning $1M Lottery Prize

AURORA, IL — An Aurora woman won a $1 million lottery prize after spending $10 on a scratch-off ticket at a local liquor store.

Antoinette "Toni" Green purchased the lucky Monopoly 50X scratch-off ticket from Ruby's Liquor at 1535 Butterfield Road, her "lucky store," which will receive a bonus of 10 percent of the prize amount, or $10,000, for selling the winning ticket.

"Toni has won a few smaller prizes here and actually claimed our store as her 'lucky store' — she's been coming regularly ever since," Anup Singh, owner of Ruby’s Liquor, said in a statement. "My son, Jas, was working the day she won the million-dollar prize. He said she scratched the ticket and started screaming 'Oh my gosh!' She then had him scan the ticket multiple times, and sure enough — the $1 million prize was real."

Her first thought after winning a Monopoly 50X scratch-off ticket was how to pay the earnings forward, according to a news release from Illinois Lottery.

"I've given away over $100,000 already," Green said. "When I was blessed with this prize, I knew I was finally in a position to give back, to help my friends and family, and to pay it forward."

Green worked as a school bus driver prior to the pandemic and most recently as a certified medical assistant, according to the release. She has been "taking care of others as long as she can remember."

"I get joy out of seeing other people’s happiness — and wondering how I can help be a part of that," she said. "The other day I overheard a young woman who could only afford a gallon of gas, and I paid the clerk to fill up her tank. It's not about what you can do for yourself, but what you can do for others."