Office Pool Wins $1 Million in Powerball

It took a combined $340 to make 68 people $14,705.88 richer. 

That's the 68-way cut that Finisar Corporation's office pool of Powerball ticket buyers will receive in about four to six weeks, according to employee Scott Keating, who led the office pool for the last several months.

Even though the winning ticket–which contained all of the matching five numbers in Saturday's drawing was purchased at the 7-Eleven on Horsham Road in Horsham–Keating said he and fellow colleagues take the divide and conquer approach to ticket-buying.

"We divide it down into $20, $30, $40 increments," said Keating of Scranton. "And we go to multiple different locations from Pennsylvania to New Jersey."

It helps that many of the Horsham fiber optics company's 150 employees live in New Jersey, Lancaster, Allentown and other locales allowing for varying lottery ticket pickups without extra travel.

Finisar's facility administrator Jackie Maldonado said one of her co-workers, who had copies of all the tickets, watched the drawing on Saturday, saw that her office pool had won and "freaked out and called everyone at 12 o'clock midnight."

"It’s a pretty happy day here," Maldonado said. "I’m part of a millionaire."

To ensure that all of the 68 employees agreed to share the winnings, Maldonado said that way in advance of the drawing, the tickets were locked up in a "top secret" location. Each of the employees in the pool received a copy of the tickets, she said, but the company's human resources department put the actual tickets away for safekeeping.

Maldonado said the office pool is looking to "go out and celebrate somewhere," but said she wasn't sure how she'd spend her $14,705.88.

Keating had some ideas. 

"Take care of some bills, go on vacation, do some work around the house," Keating said.