The winning ticket for the staggering fortune was sold at the Speedy Cafe Speedway gas station in Des Plaines, lottery officials said. No one has yet come forward to claim the huge prize – with lotto officials saying it is not even clear whether the winner was an individual or a group. Illinois is one of the few states that allows lottery winners the option of anonymity. Some other states offer some form of lotto anonymity, including New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota , Ohio, South Carolina, Texas and Wyoming, according to a list compiled by Fox News. But in New York, winners should expect to attend a public announcement or press event, according to the state lottery website. While Illinois winners have the option to remain anonymous, New York lotto winners do not have that luxury. OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP via Getty Images “The New York Lottery is a government agency and Lottery prizes are public funds, so we owe it to all our players to disclose the names of winners,” the website states. But lottery anonymity has gained momentum in recent years, including in New York, where a proposal passed the state legislature in 2019 before being vetoed by then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Cuomo’s 2019 veto message advised winners who wish to try to keep their identities hidden to form an LLC to collect the winnings on their behalf. The all-time winning ticket — for $1.537 billion, bought in South Carolina in 2018 — has yet to be revealed.
