Family members pitch in for Powerball tickets — and win big. ‘I started shaking’

Calling themselves the Rak Pack, a five-person lottery club in Michigan won a big Powerball prize as the jackpot neared $1 billion.

The Rak Pack didn’t win the jackpot prize, but the Oakland County group came away with a $1 million win it will split.

It took them nearly a year to accept their winnings after matching the five white balls in the Oct. 29, 2022, drawing.

“A few members of our family threw in money and bought several Powerball tickets since the jackpot was at $825 million,” the club’s representative, Gregory Rakowicz, told lottery officials in a Sept. 29 news release. “I checked our tickets the morning after the drawing over a cup of coffee. When I saw we matched five numbers for a $1 million prize, I started shaking. I kept checking the numbers on our ticket and the winning numbers to make sure I was seeing things right.”

The winning numbers were 19-31-40-46-57. Had they matched the Powerball number — 23 — they would have wonthe jackpot prize.

As Rakowicz went to tell his fellow Rak Pack members the good news, he ran into an issue. Calls were going unanswered.

“I called the other club members to tell them what we won, but it took some of them a few hours to call me back,” Rakowicz said. “I was so excited and couldn’t wait to tell them, so it was hard to be patient while I waited for them to call me!”

The members eventually learned about their winnings, and said they’ll use the money for home improvements, student loans and saving.

The current Powerball jackpot is $925 million as of Friday, Sept. 29. The next drawing will be Saturday.

This story was originally published September 29, 2023 at 3:26 PM with the headline "Family members pitch in for Powerball tickets — and win big. ‘I started shaking’."