Seven coworkers who have been buying lottery tickets in an office pool for years finally hit it big with last week's $319 million Mega Millions jackpot. INSIDE EDITION has the story.
They're the lucky seven who just won the Mega Millions lottery jackpot worth $319 million.
The four men and three women are New York State government workers who've been buying lottery tickets together for years in an office pool.
Now it turns out there may be an eighth co-worker who normally plays too, but didn't buy a ticket this time around because he didn't feel lucky!
The winning lottery ticket was purchased at a newsstand in downtown Albany, New York. The seven lucky winners work in the building next door.
The question now is, will the winners share their jackpot with the co-worker who opted out of the drawing?
"I think there's a lot of people that could have gotten in the pool that didn't. You know, people in the agency, you know anyone can go buy a lotto ticket," 29-year-old winner Gabrielle Mahar told INSIDE EDITION's Les Trent.
57-year-old John Hilton says he always kept a careful record of who was in and who was out of the lottery pool.
"We have a list that we have every time we have a drawing, and if you get in we mark you in, and if you don't get in, we just put a line through your name and you're out," he said.
Mahar, the youngest winner, found out her life had changed as she watched TV with her boyfriend.
"I didn't believe it, I made [the boyfriend] check it at least ten times as well," she said.
The lucky seven showed off their checks at the press event. They decided to take a lump sum payoff and each gets a staggering $19,129,571 after taxes.
