Kentucky distillery workers who play Powerball for fun splitting big win 17 ways
Pooling their money, a group of 17 workers at Barton 1792 Distillery cashed in on a winning Powerball ticket last month, the Kentucky Lottery announced in a news release Wednesday.
The group’s winning ticket matched four white ball numbers and the red Powerball, landing them the game’s third-place prize of $50,000. The odds of pulling off that kind of win are 1 in 913,129.18, according to the game’s prize chart.
The winning Powerball numbers for the March 22 drawing were 6, 7, 25, 46 and 57, with a Powerball of 12.
It led to a tidy sum for each of the group’s members: $2,941. According to the Kentucky Lottery, the group has been playing together for more than a year, and some of the first-shift employees have worked together for several years. One of the group’s members has worked at the Bardstown distillery for 45 years.
On March 25, the group carpooled to Kentucky Lottery headquarters in downtown Louisville to collect their winnings.
Chris Smith, one of the distillery’s employees, is the group’s designated ticket purchaser.
“We all play the lottery; every week I go around, I collect money from everybody, and we got a little pool going,” Smith said. “Usually we’ll win, like, four bucks or eight bucks. Once we won $100. This weekend we won $50,000, which is a pretty good little payout for everybody.”
When the group arrived at Kentucky Lottery headquarters, they were greeted by President and CEO Mary Harville. She handed them a ceremonial $50,000 check and then handed each player their individual prize.
“The Kentucky Lottery’s mission is funding education and creating fun games and an amazing winner experience in our Winners Experience Lobby.” Harville said in the release. “You could tell these winners were a tight-knit group and truly enjoyed being around each other because they were laughing and joking with one another while we were printing their checks.”
No one won the Powerball jackpot for the game’s most recent drawing on March 31.
The game’s next drawing will be held April 2 at 10:59 p.m. EDT, when an estimated jackpot value of $30 million.
In another recent Kentucky Lottery win, a woman in Perry County won more than $281,000 and showed up at headquarters with a carton of eggs, poking fun at rising prices.
If you or someone you know has a problem gambling, help is available at 1-800-522-4700.
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