$400,000 Winning Scratch-off Ticket Sold At Homewood Gas Station

HOMEWOOD, IL — Someone got lucky with a winning Illinois Lottery ticket worth $400,000, sold at a Homewood gas station.

The winner "hopped to it" and became the first to win the prize on a Frogger Instant ticket, launched just last month, Illinois Lottery officials said in a release. The lucky winner purchased the winning Frogger scratch-off ticket at the Exxon Mobil gas station, 17500 Dixie Highway in Homewood.

The Frogger Instant Ticket is intended to be nostalgic, as it’s designed just like the classic 1981 arcade game. For an additional blast from the past, the Illinois Lottery has made a version of the arcade game available to play for fun on its website. Purely for entertainment purposes, players can try their luck at old school Frogger—there are no prizes available.

For selling the winning ticket, Exxon Mobil will receive a bonus of one percent of the prize, or $4,000.

When asked what the store will do with the cash bonus, manager Atir Ahmed at Exxon Mobil in Homewood expressed with joy, “The owner tends to share a portion of the selling bonus with our employees, which means we all get to celebrate the big win!”

This isn’t the first time the retailer has sold a big winning lottery ticket. In May 2017, the same Exxon Mobil station sold a $600,000 winning Lucky Day Lotto ticket.

Overall in the month of September, more than 5,000,000 Illinois Lottery Instant Tickets were sold, winning over $126 million in prizes. Retailers also get a good chunk of change for selling winning tickets—one percent of the prize amount, or in this case, $1.26 million.

The Illinois Lottery currently offers more than 50 different Instant Ticket games at over 7,000 retail locations across Illinois.

Winners have one year from the date of the winning draw in which to claim their prize. The Illinois Lottery encourages all 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.

Winners should visit IllinoisLottery.com/winning for more information on how to claim their prizes.