‘Broken’ lottery vending machine gives man $9.2M winning ticket

An Illinois man said he only ended up winning a $9,200,000 lottery jackpot because he was having trouble with a vending machine.

The player told Illinois Lottery officials his winning story began with a grocery-buying trip to the Jewel store in Addison.

“It was a normal day, just like any other. I was picking up groceries at Jewel and on my way out the door, I decided to buy a lottery ticket,” the man said.

The player said he ran into some trouble while using the lottery vending machine.

“I actually wanted to buy a ticket for a different game and the machine got stuck on Lotto. I was a bit frustrated. I said, ‘What is going on? The machine won’t give me the right game!’ So I decided I may as well buy the Lotto ticket,” he said.

The ticket ended up scoring the man a $9,200,000 prize in the Aug. 24 lotto drawing.

“The morning after the drawing, I scanned the ticket at a machine to check if it was a winner. When the machine showed the $9.2 million prize amount, I couldn’t believe it!,” the winner said. “I looked at my wife and she was completely speechless. We are laughing over how angry I was at the broken machine — and we’re so grateful for how it all turned out.”

The Illinois Lottery said the jackpot is the second largest prize won in the Lotto game this year after a player scored $10.4 million in February.