Is Highland Liquors The Spot For Your Powerball Tickets?

JOLIET, IL - At the moment, the hottest place to buy your Illinois lottery tickets in Joliet is the Highland Liquors on East Cass Street. On Friday afternoon, the parking lot was jam packed with customers shopping for alcohol and their lottery tickets. A $2 million winning Powerball ticket from Wednesday night's drawing was sold here. But so far, the $2 million winner remains shrouded in mystery.

"The state said to me that they'd keep in touch,"' Highland Liquors co-owner Rick Fishbeck told Joliet Patch on Friday. "They won't even let me know the date and time it was sold. It could have been sold last Sunday morning, or Monday, or Wednesday afternoon. It could have been sold at anytime. These people have a year (to claim their prize) but we still get our commission for the sale."

And it's a nice commission. Highland Liquors will receive a $20,000 bonus from the Illinois lottery, or 1 percent, of the $2 million Powerball winning proceeds. Fishbeck said his liquor store in the 1600 block of East Cass Street has been affiliated with the Illinois lottery for 35 years. He said Highland Liquors was one of the first businesses in Will County to partner with the lottery.

For Highland Liquors, it's been a long time since the east-side store produced an eye-popping Illinois lottery winner as it did this week. The last big lottery winner was around 1986. A customer won $800,000, splitting the jackpot with a different winner, the co-owner recalled.

Highland Liquors is a family-run business that started in 1953, a Joliet mainstay for the past 64 years. Fishbeck co-owns the store along with his father. (For more information on this and other neighborhood stories, subscribe to Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts.)

As for Wednesday night, the jackpot for Powerball was $700 million.

"It was busier than usual, especially last Wednesday night," Fishbeck recalled. "We sold more than usual, especially for Powerball."

He expects his store's lottery ticket sales will soar in the coming weeks thanks to the positive recognition his store is getting. He said he did an interview with Chicago's ABC-7.

"I think lottery customers are superstitious," Fishbeck told Patch. "And with gambling, people do know that lightning does struck twice, whether it's on a blackjack table or with playing the slots."

Like everyone else, Fishbeck is anxious to learn who bought the $2 million Powerball ticket at Highland Liquors. "I'm hoping it's one of my regular customers. I would sure like to see one of them win," he said.

Images via John Ferak, Joliet Patch Editor