Lucky Blue Island Woman Wins $250,000 In Illinois Lottery

BLUE ISLAND, IL — A Blue Island woman is the latest Illinois Lottery player to cash in a life-changing prize. Robyn Roney won $250,000 while playing one of her favorite scratchers, Sapphire 7’s.

“It was around 7 a.m. and I stopped at my lucky store on my way to work and picked up an instant ticket,” Roney said.

Roney decided to scratch the ticket in her car in the parking lot before heading into work.

“I started scratching and when I looked down and checked, I realized I had won and I just started shaking,” Roney said. “My heart was racing and I couldn’t believe it.”

But seeing those numbers for herself was not enough for this winner, who immediately phoned her fiancé and asked him to come by to confirm her win.

“I was freaking out and I still couldn't stop shaking,” the lucky winner said. “I asked my fiancé to come and meet me at my job so that he could double-check the ticket, and then he couldn't stop shaking either.”

Roney and her fiancé plan to spend their win on a few home renovation projects, including some new appliances and a full fence around their yard for their latest four-legged family member.

“We just recently got a puppy, a chocolate lab named Max, about eight months ago,” Roney said. “We want to update the house, the porch and the yard and build a fence around the backyard so that he can run around and play.”

The winning ticket was purchased at Roney’s favorite retailer, the BP gas station at 12701 S. Paulina in Calumet Park.

Roney considers this retailer to be her lucky store and says she has purchased plenty of winning tickets there before, including a $2,000 winning instant ticket back in 2018.

The $250,000 prize winner has been enjoying Illinois Lottery instants for the past 20 years and plans to keep playing and gifting the games.

“My favorite games to play are the scratch-off tickets,” Roney said, who shares that specialty tickets top her list of favorite Illinois Lottery games to play.

“I like to play them all, especially the ones that do good, like the one for breast cancer awareness,” says the winner, about the Carolyn Adams Ticket for the Cure.

Each year, Roney also looks forward to sharing the gift of possibilities with those nearest and dearest to her.

“Especially around Christmas time, I look forward to the holiday tickets and what I do is I buy a bunch and pass them out to all my relatives and give them out as gifts.”

Roney feels quite optimistic sharing these final words with fellow Lottery players: “Expect the unexpected.”