Man Surprises Wife With $25 Scratch-off, It Wins Them $1 Million

MONEE, IL — An Illinois Lottery player and her entire family were shocked and in disbelief to discover her $25 scratch-off lottery ticket revealed the top prize of $1 million.

The winning player, who has requested to remain anonymous, said her husband actually picked up the ticket as a gift for her.

"My husband was on his way home from work and was so tired that day he didn’t want to stop at the store," said the lucky winner. "He knows I like crosswords and puzzles in general, so he bought me a $25 Diamond Crossword scratch-off lottery ticket."

The $1 million winning scratch-off ticket was purchased at Monee Tobacco, located at 5701 West Monee Manhattan Road, Suite 103, in Monee.

"The only people we’ve told so far are our kids," explained the winner. "Each of us had the same shocked reaction and didn’t believe we’d really won a million dollars."

The winner already has plans for her prize.

"I’ve always dreamed of buying a house," she said. "It would be fabulous to finally say, 'We own this home.' After taking care of a few other necessary purchases, choosing the perfect house for our family will be the top priority."

This is also a big win for Monee Tobacco, as the store will receive a selling bonus of one percent of the prize amount, or $10,000.

So far in 2024, more than 39 million winning Illinois Lottery Instant Tickets have been sold, netting players over $1 billion in prizes.

The Illinois Lottery currently offers a range of Instant Ticket games priced from $1 to $50, available at approximately 7,000 retail locations across Illinois.