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On Thursday, a $23.75 million lottery ticket was sold at a BP gas station in the Roseland neighborhood. It is the largest Illinois lottery winning in seven years.
The co-owner of the gas station — Tanveer Haroon — will be awarded 1% of the winnings, equal to $237,500.
“I can’t believe it, the winning jackpot ticket was actually sold here,” Haroon said in a statement. “We’ve owned this family business for more than 10 years and this is by far the biggest winning jackpot ticket we’ve ever sold at our store — I’m so happy.”
He added that he does not know what he will spend his six-figure bonus on but he does plan to celebrate with his family.
On Saturday afternoon, the gas station was abuzz with people lining up to buy lottery tickets at the machine that provided the eight-figure payout just days before. Employee Dave Trivedi said he and his fellow employees had not yet talked to his boss about what they would get but said in the past ownership has split some of the winnings with the staff.
“We are very happy that from this neighborhood somebody won the lottery!” he said.
Trivedi said he hopes this massive jackpot winning triggers more people to buy tickets outside downtown Chicago, acknowledging that when he checks where the mid-size winners come from, most of these tickets are sold at stores in more densely populated areas.
But big-ticket winners have been finding success in the South Suburbs and South Chicago. In the past year, including this week’s record-breaking ticket, there have been eight tickets worth over $1 million. Of those eight tickets, three have been sold in the south part of the city or Southland, with the other two winning tickets coming out of Oak Forest in April and Mokena earlier this month.
The identity of the winner is not being publicized.
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