Illinois records several big winners in historic Powerball drawing

The big winner of Wednesday night’s Powerball $1 billion jackpot was in Los Angeles, but an unnamed person also hit the big time after buying a $1 million ticket from an Elmhurst liquor store.

Across Illinois, eight lottery players are likely celebrating this morning after winning big in Wednesday night’s drawing, according to Illinois lottery spokeswoman Jennifer Born.

The Elmhurst buyer snared the winning ticket at Williams Liquors & Tobacco, 925 S. Elmhurst Road, and won $1 million after matching all five numbers to snag the second top prize in the historic drawing.

Jay Patel, 31, manager of the store, said that the winning ticket was sold Tuesday evening, July 19, around 6:30 p.m. The last big winner sold at his store was in November of 2022 for an Illinois Lottery Instant Ticket winner worth $400,000, according to Born.

Patel said they had no idea about the big winner until they saw the news vans were in the parking lot of the store, that his family owns, this morning.

“I…