Suburban Chicago Liquor Store Sells Second Multi-Million Dollar Winning Lottery Ticket In Three Years
Photo Caption: Shar’s Armanetti Fine Wines & Spirits in Carpentersville sold a $3 million winning scratch-off ticket to a regular customer.
CHICAGO, Sept. 22, 2023 – A suburban Chicago liquor store has good reason to deem their store “lucky” after selling its second multi-million dollar winning Illinois Lottery ticket in three years.
Shar’s Armanetti Fine Wines & Spirits, located at 222 W. Main Street in Carpentersville, sold a winning jackpot scratch-off ticket worth $3 million to one of its regular customers.
The lucky customer spent $30 on Titanium Black 7s Instant Ticket and ended up winning the games top prize.
The store owner, Dhiren Patel, says the big winner, who visits the store often, thanked him on the spot.
“She scratched the ticket right in front of me after purchasing it and I witnessed the shocked look on her face,” exclaimed Patel. “She then came over closer to me and excitedly said ‘Pinch me, I need to make sure this is real! I won a big amount - thank you, thank you!’ It’s so exciting when the big wins go to our regular, local customers.”
This isn’t the first time the retailer has sold a big winning scratch-off ticket. It happened before, and Patel now believes he may be a good luck charm.
“We must be a lucky location for Lottery players,” joked Patel. “Three years ago, in March of 2020, we had a $6 million Instant Ticket winner. It was during Covid, so business was quiet and sadly, we didn’t get to celebrate that win with the customer - so this is an especially exciting win for our store!”
For selling the winning ticket, Shar’s Armanetti Wines & Spirits will receive a bonus of 1% of the winning ticket, which in this case amounts to $30,000.
Patel plans to use the bonus to make some improvements to his business while also putting some money towards his kids’ college funds.
So far this year, 20 other Illinois Lottery players have become millionaires after winning on Instant Tickets.
In total, more than 48 million winning Instant Tickets have been sold in Illinois, netting lottery players over $1.055 billion in prizes in 2023.
The Illinois Lottery currently offers more than 50 different Instant Ticket games at over 7,000 retail locations across Illinois.
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.
About the Illinois Lottery
Founded in 1974, the Illinois Lottery has contributed over $24 billion (since 1985) to the state’s Common School Fund to assist K-12 public schools, as well as hundreds of millions of dollars to the Capital Projects Fund and to special causes. For more information, visit IllinoisLottery.com.