CHICAGO (WMBD) — One Illinois liquor store helped make two lucky lottery players multi-millionaires in the last three years.
According to an Illinois Lottery news release, Shar’s Armanetti Fine Wines & Spirits located in Carpentersville, Ill. has sold two tickets worth a combined $9 million.
One of the store’s regular customers recently won $3 million, which was the top prize of the $30 Titanium Black 7’s instant ticket.
Dhiren Patel, the store’s owner, said the winner was shocked when she won.
“She scratched the ticket right in front of me after purchasing it and I witnessed the shocked look on her face,” Patel said. “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.”
The store also sold a $6 million winning scratch-off ticket in March 2020.
“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,” Patel said.
The liquor store will receive a bonus of one percent of the ticket for selling the winning ticket. Patel said he planned to use the bonus to make some improvements to his business and save some money for his children’s college fund.
More than 48 million winning instant tickets have been sold in Illinois this year.
More information on the Illinois Lottery is available on its website.
