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Ill. schools get over $30M from record lottery sales

(via Flickr/Rob Lee)

Last week's record Mega Millions drawing made a winner of Illinois schools, too.

WBBM Radio reports that record Illinois lottery sales in the past nine weeks pumped $31.5 million into the fund devoted to public schools.

Lottery officials say that's mostly because of the multistate Mega Millions game that reached an all-time high $656 million before producing three main winners in a drawing Friday.

One of the Mega Millions winners bought a ticket in Red Bud near St. Louis. Officials say the convenience store that sold the ticket will collect a $500,000 bonus.

Lawmakers created the Illinois lottery in 1974 to boost school funding. Officials say it's produced more than $17 billion during that time.