Illinois Instant Riches

A game show for the Illinois Lottery. This new format pitted people in mini-games. This show would get a major revamp in 1998 as well as be changed to Illinois' Luckiest.

Force Field

A pendulum is suspended over a table with various magnets of equal strength with dollar amounts. The player releases the pendulum and wherever the pendulum stops due to the magnet attracting it will be the amount of money the player wins. The space that is hit is replaced with a "Wipeout." If the "Wipeout is hit, all money accumulated is lost.

After the second swing, a Wipeout is placed on the space hit as well as the lowest dollar amount on the table so that there are three total. If the player chooses, they can play again and if they hit a money spot, that value is multiplied by 5.

Double Dollars

This is a pachinko style game where a ping-pong ball is launched and falls down a board into one of the 10 slots at the bottom. Every time a ball lands in an empty slot, the player won $5,000. If the ball falls into a slot already with a ball in it, the player gets a strike.

If the player gets two strikes, then they are issued one more pull. If the ball lands in an empty slot, their winnings are doubled. If the ball lands in an already occupied slot though, the player's prize money would be halved.

Bonus Game 1: Knockout

This was the final round for the early season, later on this game would be added into the minigames and the bonus round would be replaced with Pot of Gold.

A table with 12 cylinders was presented. A bumbling "Spastic Cube" would be released and would have 30 seconds to bounce around the field and knock down any columns in its path. Any columns remaining standing at the end of the time limit will win a grand prize.

For the normal game, the cube is released and any columns left standing at the end of the time limit of 10 seconds earned the player $1500 for each standing cylinder. The cube was activated for another 15 seconds and any columns left standing would be worth $2500 apiece.

After two rounds, all columns were removed and one was placed on the field. The player can choose to take the money and leave or have the cube activated one more time for 20 seconds. When the cube is released, if the column remains standing, the player's winnings are doubled. If not, the winnings are halved.

Bonus Game 2: Pot of Gold

This new game pitted the days winner against a champion from last week. It was a staircase with the steps 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, $10,000, 25,000 and Big Money.

The last three steps would award the player should they make it on those steps without being trapped. They awarded the follwing dollar amounts listed with the "Big Money" sace ranging from $40,000 - $200,000.

The challenger could pick any one of the first three steps in front of them, but first the champion would "booby trap" one of them. After trapping a panel, the challenger picked a space. The champion would then spring their trap and if the trap misses, the challenger goes on. If the challenger hits the trap, then they have to start again. The challenger is defeated if they fall for the trap twice.

Broadcast
Although this game show was for the lottery of Illinois only, it was also aired nationally on Superstation WGN for cable subscribers

(Illinois Area) WGN 9 / Syndicated 1994-1998

(National) Superstation WGN 1994-1999

Hosts
Mark Goodman & Linda Kollmeyer