Play the Lottery, Fight Breast Cancer

By Rachelle Bowden in News on Feb 3, 2005 1:10PM

State legislators from both parties think that the state Lottery is something that can be used to help combat breast cancer. On Wednesday, they proposed creating a new Lottery game, called "Ticket for the Cure," to raise over $3 million for breast cancer prevention and treatment programs.

The money would be given out by a new board in conjunction with state health officials. If it goes through it will make Illinois the first state in the US to create a Lottery game to benefit cancer programs. Lawmakers are hoping the new game will get more people to play the Lottery and that it will also help remind women to seek early detection.

In some other crazy Lottery news, $14 million went unclaimed on Monday - the largest pot in the state to go unclaimed. The knucklehead who let this one go will be cursing himself for the rest of his life, we're sure. We're hoping that the ticket was lost before the winner ever knew they won. It will save years of torment, if so! The unclaimed money will go to the State Common School Fund, which supports public education programs.