$1M Lotto Ticket Sold At Joliet Gas Station: 'Staff And I Are Elated'

JOLIET, IL — The owner of the BP gas station at the corner Hammes Avenue and West Jefferson Street is waiting to find out who purchased Friday night's winning Lucky Day Lotto ticket that's worth a $1 million prize.

“My staff and I are elated that our store played a small role in making someone’s lottery dream come true,” remarked Khurram Ghani, owner of Joliet's Jefferson Street BP at 1987 West Jefferson St. “We have no clue who the winner is, but our gut feeling is that it’s a local customer from the Joliet area, or at least we hope that it is so that we can all celebrate this unbelievable moment together.”

According to Illinois lottery officials, retailers who sell winning tickets receive a cash selling bonus of 1 percent of the prize. For Jefferson BP, that means a bonus of $10,000.

The Joliet ticket matched all five numbers,9-14-19-23-44, to win the $1 million jackpot.

The Joliet winner is now the eighth Illinois Lottery player who has won a prize of a million dollars or more with Lucky Day Lotto so far this year.

According to the Illinois State Lottery, Ghani's bonus couldn’t have come at a better time.

“The holidays are just around the corner, so I plan to use a portion of the money to take care of my dedicated and hard-working employees, then the rest will be reinvested in the business,” he remarked.

In total, more than 41,000 winning tickets were sold, and nearly $1.2 million in prizes were won in Friday evening's Lucky Day Lotto drawing. Winners have one year from the date of the winning draw in which to claim their prize.

Last week, Joliet Patch interviewed the owners of the Sunshine Food Mart on Wilcox Street after that store sold a $100,000 winning lottery ticket.