A group of employees in the Omaha public works department stepped forward Tuesday to claim a $1 million prize from the Nebraska Lottery.
Neil Watson, spokesman for the Nebraska Lottery, said 16 people who identified themselves as street maintenance workers for the City of Omaha 15 men and 1 woman will share the $1 million prize from the Feb. 8 multi-state Powerball drawing.
The group purchased the ticket at the Kwik Shop at 7525 Cass St. in Omaha.
Watson said the $1 million ticket had five correct numbers but not the correct Powerball number. Had the employees correctly picked all six numbers, they would have won a $336 million jackpot.
“The winners told me that they had 3 as their Powerball number but 33 was the number drawn,” Watson said.
This is the first time a $1 million winner has been sold in Nebraska since the Powerball game changed to a $2 ticket price on Jan. 18. The Powerball jackpot now starts at $40 million instead of $20 million.
The employees, who have played the game for almost a decade, will each receive a $62,500 share of the prize.
Each week, Christopher Braun of Omaha and his 15 co-workers pool their money to purchase Powerball tickets. For the Feb. 8 drawing, the group purchased 16 quick pick tickets.
One of the tickets contained the five winning white ball numbers (17, 28, 38, 39, 51) for a corresponding prize of $1 million.
Previously, the amount for matching only the first five numbers was $200,000.
Besides Braun, the winning employees are Mark Schartow, Donald Phillip, Michael Banks, Eugene Cosey, Michael Miller, Jeffery Plater, John Nared Jr., Bryan Luttig, Christian Kubat, Cameron Hurd, Joseph Hoagland, Daniel Hussey, Scott Arnold, Damita Peak and John Falkner. All are from Omaha except Miller, who lives in Council Bluffs.
The odds of winning $1 million playing Powerball are 1 in 5,513,632, while the overall odds of winning any prize are 1 in 31.8.
Contact the writer:
402-444-1272, kevin.cole@owh.com
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