HARWOOD HEIGHTS, Ill. — There are several ways to turn $20 into $2 million, but one lucky lotto player found the easy route after picking up a scratch-off lottery ticket in the northwest suburbs after work one night. 

According to the Illinois Lottery, the jackpot was revealed while the lotto player was playing $20 Illinois Jackpot, a scratch-off ticket that promises players the chance at a $2 million jackpot, with plenty of smaller prizes mixed in. 

The newly minted millionaire, who asked to remain anonymous, said it was not his first run-in with luck, but fortune was definitely in his favor when he picked up the winning ticket at a Shell Gas Station in Harwood Heights back in late February.

“Admittedly, I like to think I’m a pretty lucky person,” the big winner said. “I’ve won things here and there, but never a prize as incredible as this.”

After taxes, the winner will take home about $1,421,000, which equals out to about $480,000 in federal taxes and about $99,000 in state taxes, according to Nerdwallet’s Lottery Tax Calculator.

The anonymous winner said he stopped at the gas station, near North Nagel Avenue and North Narragansett Avenue, after work one evening and is thankful that he picked a store that he feels may have a bit of special energy attached to it. 

“As it turns out, I think the owner of the Shell station might just be my lucky charm,” the winner said. “He seems to have sold a number of winning lottery tickets over the years. Good thing I stopped at that Shell to buy my ticket.”

It is not the first time a winning ticket has been sold at the gas station. According to the Illinois Lottery, a $600,000 winning scratch-off ticket was sold there back in November of 2022.

“We are so excited for the winner. He came in to double-check his ticket and told our staff he won. Everyone has been so excited for him,” Jibit Joy, the owner of the gas station said.

As a bonus for selling the ticket, the business will receive a $20,000 bonus, equal to one percent of the prize amount. 

Only three jackpot prizes were up for grabs when the ticket first launched back in May of 2022, and including the most recent win, two have already been claimed, meaning only one jackpot ticket is still out there.

$20 Illinois Jackpot players have a 1 in 3.16 chance of claiming a prize, but the odds of claiming a jackpot are much higher at 1 in 1,877,100.

Officials offered details about the big win on Saturday.

According to the Illinois lottery, the life-changing ticket is just one of 13.5 million Instant Tickets that have been sold this year, which have netted players more than $330 million in prizes.

Winners have one year from the date of winning to claim their prizes and players are advised to write their names on the backs of winning tickets and keep them in a safe place until they are ready to claim their prizes.