Woman Plans to Share $9.9 Million Lottery Prize with 4 Former Co-Workers

After 11 years of playing the lottery, an Indiana woman hit the jackpot — and she is sharing her multimillion-dollar prize with her former co-workers.

The woman, named Milly, purchased the winning Hoosier Lotto ticket on behalf of herself and four of her former co-workers, who refer to themselves as “Milly’s Lottery Pool,” according to a news release from the Hoosier Lottery.

The group of Columbus-area residents initially met at their factory job and have stayed in touch — and chased their lottery dreams together — since then.

For more than a decade, they have teamed up to enter every Hoosier Lotto draw, as well as other Hoosier Lottery games, to “have some fun and excitement together,” per the release.

On Aug. 16, Milly bought their latest ticket at Jack’s Place, a gas station in Columbus — and little did she and fellow players Tony, Kendra, Jenny and Roxanne know that their years-long lottery playing streak was about to pay off.

Milly, who runs a lottery-focused YouTube channel called “Oldladyscratcher,” posted the ticket on the group’s Facebook Messenger chat on Aug. 18, just as she was also scanning the ticket on the Hoosier Lottery app. She immediately saw that the amount was too large to pay at a retailer, leaving her intrigued.

Milly then looked up the ticket’s numbers and realized the group had won. She quickly messaged them, “OMG! Everyone, we hit it. We won!”

The winning jackpot totaled $9.9 million.

The four others were going about their day when they were thrilled to receive Milly’s life-changing message. According to the release, Tony’s phone was charging on the kitchen counter when it began to “jump” with all the messages flooding in.

“I was sitting down to dinner when I read the message that we won. At that point, I couldn’t eat dinner,” he told the Hoosier Lottery.

Kendra was leaving work at the time when she received a call via Messenger. She told the lottery she initially thought it was “a butt dial” from the group, and when she saw the message that they had won, she thought, “This is not real.”

As for Jenny, she had just read the news on Facebook that a jackpot-winning ticket was sold in Columbus and thought to herself, “I wish that was me.” Once she learned about the big win, she forced herself to hold off telling her adult son and daughter for a week and then asked them to come to her house for “some news.” The family began celebrating together after she revealed her secret.

Roxanne was with her family, about to board a flight to an Alaskan cruise, when she learned the news. She considered skipping the trip, knowing the rest of the group would be keen to go claim their winnings. But she went ahead with the cruise, and Milly, Tony, Kendra and Jenny waited patiently at home for her to return.

Finally, on Aug. 28, the group gathered at the Hoosier Lottery Prize Payment Office in downtown Indianapolis, where they were presented with their check. They opted to take the cash value of $4,682,171, split five ways, according to the lottery.

The group already has plans for what they will do with the money, ranging from buying a new car or a new house to putting it in savings. They all shared a similar sentiment that the lottery win will “take weight off their shoulders.”

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Sarah M. Taylor, Hoosier Lottery’s executive director, had an opportunity to chat with the group when they came to the lottery office to claim their prize.

“We love when Hoosiers play Indiana’s hometown favorite jackpot game, and we especially love it when Hoosiers win,” she said. “The fact that a group of longtime friends and co-workers from the Columbus area have won this jackpot together adds an extra layer of excitement.”

The Hoosier Lotto has had two previous jackpot wins this year: $42.5 million on March 12 (ranking as the highest state lottery jackpot and the third-largest U.S. jackpot), followed by $1.2 million on March 22.