CHICAGO, IL (Chambana Today) – The Illinois Lottery celebrates its 50th anniversary and is reporting record breaking sales for the fiscal year 2024.
The Illinois Lottery is reporting sales of $3.86 billion and lottery proceeds of $883.6 million for 2024, which surpasses last year’s figures. This is due to the five multi-state jackpots with each exceeding $1 billion for the first time in lottery history. These proceeds go to the Common School Fund.
“Since its inception, the Illinois Lottery has been a valuable state asset, and now 99% of proceeds go into the Common School Fund,” said Governor JB Pritzker. “We are proud this year to celebrate both the Lottery’s golden anniversary and another record year of net income, which will support our K-12 students and other good causes, such as supporting Illinois veterans and commission scholarships for the Illinois DREAM Fund.”
To celebrate its 50th anniversary, the Illinois Lottery introduced Celebration Instant tickets with second chance draws, sweepstakes for gift cards, events offering merchandise, and cash prizes held across the state. To celebrate, the Illinois Lottery hosted a tour of 50 lottery retail outlets in a prize truck and giant disco ball in downtown Chicago, giving away $10,000 in prizes.
“For 50 years, the Lottery has been giving Illinois residents an opportunity to play, a chance to win, while making a difference at the same time,” said Illinois Lottery Director Harold Mays. “As we reflect on the Lottery’s rich history and the impact it has had, we’re particularly proud to announce another year of record returns to the State of Illinois to help supplement funding for K-12 public education and the specialty causes we support in Illinois.”
During this period, there were over 117 million winning tickets sold with 75 players winning $1 million or more and an online player who won $552 million on Mega Millions in June 2024, making it the largest lottery prize ever won online in the U.S.