$500K Winning Lottery Ticket Sold At Wine, Cheese Store

MCHENRY COUNTY, IL — The International House of Wine and Cheese in Richmond sold a $500,000 winning lottery ticket last week.

The lucky player who purchased the winning Lucky Day Lotto ticket matched all five numbers in the Jan. 12 evening drawing to score the $500,000 jackpot prize, according to an Illinois Lottery news release.

The winning numbers were: 2-3-10-19-26. The ticket was purchased from the wine and cheese store at 11302 US Highway 12 in Richmond.

“I found out our store sold a $500,000 winning lottery ticket when I got a call from an Illinois Lottery representative while I was on vacation,” said Tom Jiaras, owner of International House of Wine and Cheese.

“Everyone at our store is so excited," Jiaras said. "I’m especially happy for the lucky customer who won the jackpot. I hope they come back and tell us so we can share in their joyful moment, and maybe even get a picture together.”

The International House of Wine and Cheese opened in 1971 and has been selling lottery tickets for five decades, Jiaras said.

“We may not look like your typical lottery retailer, being a wine and cheese store, but we’ve actually been selling Lottery tickets since they were first introduced fifty years ago,” Jiaras said. “We’ve seen incredible changes over the decades: from the physical tickets to increasing jackpots and advancements in technology - everything has gotten better and better. It’s been such a joy to sell lottery tickets to our customers for so many years, and I’m excited to see how this big jackpot win may attract even more lottery customers to our store.”

This is also a big win for Richmond’s International House of Wine and Cheese, as the store will receive a bonus of one percent of the prize amount, or $5,000.

This isn’t the first time the retailer has sold a big winning lottery ticket. Tom recalls a time when they sold a $260,000 winning ticket a few years ago.

“The customer came in and gave us his ticket to scan and check if he had won. I said, ‘It’s you! You’re the person we’ve been looking for!,' to which he said, ‘What are you talking about?’ I said ‘Didn’t you know? You won $260,000!’ He stood there, completely frozen, for five minutes. He was so blown away, he couldn’t move. It was such a funny and amazing experience to see firsthand," Jiaras said.

Over 21,500 winning tickets were purchased for the Sunday, Jan. 12 evening Lucky Day Lotto drawing, netting players nearly $560,000.

Winners have one year from the date of the winning draw to claim their prize. The Illinois Lottery encourages all lucky winners to write their name on the back of their ticket and keep it in a safe place until they’re ready to claim their prize.

Lucky Day Lotto is an Illinois-only game with twice daily drawings at 12:40 p.m. and 9:22 p.m. Tickets for the game can be purchased in-store, online, or on the Illinois Lottery app. For more information or to buy tickets online, please visit IllinoisLottery.com.