Mega Millions Winning Ticket Claimed in New York

The Mega Millions winning ticket in New York was claimed Thursday morning. The winning ticket was revealed after Friday night's drawing, but the names of the winners had not yet been released. Now the world will know the seven co-workers who came forward with the winning ticket.

According to CNN, the winners are all co-workers at New York state's Division of Housing and Community Renewal. They have apparently been playing the lottery for years as part of an office pool. In typical office pools, several co-workers will put money into a pot and share all of the tickets that are purchased with that money. It's a way to increase the odds of winning, even if that increase isn't as substantial as some might think.

The names of the seven winners are John Hilton, 57; John Kutey, 54; Gabrielle Mahar, 29; John Kutey, 54; Tracy Sussman, 41; Kristin Baldwin, 42; Leon Peck, 62; and Mike Barth, 63. Now it will be interesting to see how many of them end up staying co-workers, and how many decide that this win is their ticket straight into retirement. With the $319 million jackpot in this latest drawing, that is a pretty nice retirement fund.

The group ended up selecting the one-time lump-sum payment, so they will walk away with $202.9 million as a group. CNN noted that it will lead to just over $19 million going to each of the co-workers after the taxes are taken out. That is not bad at all, and it could give other groups that play the lottery hopes that their day might be coming in the near future.

It's always intriguing to see the jackpots of these lotteries get so high, because it almost guarantees that someone is going to win big. Each time that the jackpot isn't won, the next week's drawing becomes worth even more, usually leading to an increase in ticket sales. This one won't be redrawn, though, as the winners are already laying claim to their new fortune.

The numbers that were drawn on Friday night were 22, 24, 31, 52, and 54, with a Mega Ball number of 4. The way to win the jackpot is to match all six numbers, and that is exactly what this group was able to do. Matching the first five numbers leads to a prize of $250,000, but that's not what happened during this latest drawing.

Mega Millions reports that the odds of winning the jackpot prize are 1 in 175,711,536. Those are not good odds, and it speaks to why there is so often no winner, which in turn allows the pot to grow for the next winner.