Illinois' Luckiest

A revival of Illinois Instant Riches with bigger payoffs and different formats. Most of the minigames from its predecessor were used on the show, with a few other games added.

Contestant Selections
Contestant selection was different too. It was in two formats during the show's run

Survey
Six people are chosen and a basket with six envelopes containing a survey answer were presented. Each player would take one envelope. A survey would be read and each player would then open their envelope revealing an answer. The players holding the top three survey answers would then be chosen.

Pinball
The Pinball game from the first season's bonus round would be used to select contestants later in the run. 15 contestants are placed so that three are in each of the 5 slots and a ball is released. The three players chosen would be in the slot the ball lands in.

The winners would then proceed to the minigames. The different part of the show is that three people are selected to play a game and are given a small amount of money to begin with. They then have to wager an amount to risk. The winner of each round also earned a $10,000 bonus as well.

Knockout
The game underwent a rule change to accommodate the new format. Contestants bid on how long the bouncing cube can bounce around a circular table without knocking down one of 2 cylinders on the table. If the cube doesn't knock a cylinder down, the high bidder(s) win money - $2,000 in Round 1, $3,000 in Round 2, and $5,000 in Round 3.

If a cylinder is knocked down, everyone but the bidder wins the money. A $10,000 bonus is awarded to the player with the most money after Round 3, and is split for a tie.

Freefall
A revamped version of "Double Dollars". To start, Goodman launches a ball up a machine similar to the Double Dollars game board from IIR and each of the names of the 3 contestants is in a bag (or the numbers 1, 2, and 3 are printed on balls and placed into a fish tank with water). One player is chosen by hostess Linda Kollmeyer at random. That person launches a ball up the contraption. If the ball lands in one of the 7 unoccupied slots, that person wins $2,000. Kollmeyer goes back in the bag and pulls out one of the 3 names. This time, if the ball lands in one of the 6 unoccupied slots, the player wins $4,000. Every successive time after a ball has been placed in an open slot is worth an additional $2,000. If a ball lands in an occupied slot, that person's turn is over and all money accumulated is cut in half (or if the player earned nothing, they won $500). Also, one can freeze at any time. The player with the most money after everyone is knocked out or has frozen wins a $10,000 bonus, again, this bonus is split for a tie.

The strike sound effect and graphic from "Double Dollars" carried over to "Freefall."

Force Field
Everyone starts with $3,000 and wagers their money hoping a pendulum will land on a WIN space. The game is played on a round board with a pendulum in the middle and 10 magnets arranged in a circle on the table. For round 1, 6 areas are marked with WIN and 4 are marked LOSE and contestants can wager up to half their money. If a WIN space is hit, the contestants win the amount of money wagered (and lose the amount if the LOSE space is hit).

For round 2, 4 areas are marked WIN [one is regular, one is WIN x 2 (double the wager), one WIN x 3, one WIN x 4] and there are 6 LOSE spaces. The contestants can wager as much as they would like in the 2nd and final round. Again, $10,000 is awarded to the player with the most money or the money is split in case of a tie.

Splashdown
Introduced on 1/29/00. The players face a board of 18 numbered rods, split into three rows (1-4 on top, 5-10 in the middle, and 11-18 on the bottom), each holding up a colored ball. Rods 1-4 held up two red's and a green, the rest held yellow balls. The captain of the team draws a number, and that number's rod gets removed from the playfield.

If a yellow ball splashes down into the water, the team wins $5,000. If no balls splash down, the team wins $500.

The only way the game ends (besides the captain saying "I'll stop") is if a red ball or a green ball splashes down. If the red ball splashes down, either by itself or with other colored balls - even the green one - the team loses half their winnings. If the green ball splashes down with no red ball, the team's total is bumped to $75,000.

Vortex
Introduced on 1/29/00. Same rules as IIR, except the money's split by the team. The team captain is assigned to pull the lever that releases the balls.

Double Dollars
Introduced on 1/29/00. Same rules as IIR, except the money's split by the team. The team captain, instead of pulling a lever, presses a button on a buzzer that looks like the hand-held buzzers on Jeopardy!

The button carried over to the "Double Dollars" spin-off game, "Freefall," described above.

Bonus Games
This bonus round had two formats.

$100,000 Pinball
A gigantic CGI pinball table would appear on the screen and all the players would choose which slot they think the ball would land in. The first table had 3 slots, the second four and the third had five. Each round, wherever the ball landed, if anyone was in the slot where the ball landed, they would continue on where everyone else was eliminated. They then chose a different slot for the second and third times. The player(s) win $100,000 if they can make it through all three passes by picking the correct slot the ball lands in.

The table was a computer graphic superimposed over a blue field, a common special effect for those times.

Pot of Gold (Format 2)
Played similarly to the "Pot of Gold" from Illinois Instant Riches except that all the players were playing with the highest winner of them all being the one laying the traps. This time, two traps were laid out and anyone who fell for them were eliminated immediately. If somebody made it to "Big Money" without getting trapped, they would have a chance to win an additional $40,000-$200,000 dollars. If all the challengers are eliminated, then the highest winner gets to try their luck at the "Big Money" space.

Music
Main - Score Productions Double Dollars Gameplay - "Full Speed Ahead" by John Hobbs Win Fanfare - "Street Knowledge" by Larry Wolff

Trivia
Like Illinois Instant Riches, this show was also was available nationally as well as in Illinois.

Spin-Offs
Illinois Instant Riches - Predecessor to this show from 1994-1998

The Illinois Lottery 25th Anniversary Special - One Time Special Spinoff from 1999

YouTube Videos
A full episode of the show

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4