what time do they stop selling lottery tickets in illinois

Cut off times for the sale of lottery tickets in Illinois vary by game and by store of purchase. Lottery sales stop 7 minutes before the drawing for the Illinois Lotto and Lucky Day Lotto, which is 9:15 PM for the usual 9:22 PM drawing. You can buy tickets for both the Powerball and the Mega Millions drawings until 9:00 PM Central on the night of the drawing. No exact cut off time is listed online for the My3, Pick 3, and Pick 4 drawings, but it's likely sales also cut off about 5 to 7 minutes before these drawings.

It's a good idea to ask the clerk at the store where you usually buy your lottery tickets when the store stops selling lottery tickets before each drawing. Some stores may stop selling tickets a bit earlier than others. For more information, you can call the Illinois Lottery Player Hotline at 1-800-252-1775 or email them at: "LotteryInfo@NorthstarLottery.net".

The largest Powerball jackpot in history was split on November 28, 2023 by two people in Arizona and Missouri. It's been confirmed that two separate winning tickets were sold for the record $579.9 million jackpot. Though there was no Powerball Jackpot winner from Illinois in the record drawing, two people from Illinois matched 5 numbers without the Powerball and won $1 million each. Though their identities are unknown, the tickets are known to have been sold in Fairmount, IL and Flanagan, IL.

Just in: Illinois Lottery tickets can now be bought using smartphone and iPads and you can purchase tickets online here.