Co-workers hoping to hit record Mega Millions jackpot
The servicemen at Hoskins Chevrolet in Elk Grove Village have simple dreams.
Pay off the bills. Take a nice vacation. Retire somewhere quiet. And of course, buy a few of the flashy new cars in the showroom.
More than 30 employees in the service department have combined their luck and money to increase their odds of winning a record-breaking Mega Millions jackpot.
“It's fun,” said service manager Zach Mulso, who organizes lottery pools for his co-workers when the top prize hits around $200 million. “It brings up the camaraderie around here.”
The upbeat servicemen at Hoskins Chevrolet are among countless employees at companies across the suburbs and nation who are bonding together this week in hopes of winning big.
The estimated jackpot — $540 million as of Thursday evening, undoubtedly more by today's 10 p.m. drawing — beats a previous North American record of $390 million. To get here, the Mega Millions jackpot had to roll over 18 times, the last time Tuesday, when no one in the District of Columbia, U.S. Virgin Islands or the 42 states where Mega Millions is played matched all six winning numbers to claim the $363 million jackpot.
Two second-place winning tickets, however, were sold in Illinois.
Mike Lang, spokesman for the Illinois Lottery, said no one knows how many groups of co-workers have won a lottery jackpot, but he said each year only “a few” of those group winners pull in more than $1 million.
“More often than not it's a happy, hassle-free thing,” he said.
Disputes occur, though, if groups don't make guidelines ahead of time. Lang's tips:
Ÿ Give copies of the tickets to everyone beforehand. (Hoskins automotive technician Joe Kosiba admits they stopped photocopying tickets when it got too time-consuming. “It's just a waste of paper,” he said.)
Ÿ Agree on how much money each person has to put in. At Hoskins, each player contributes $5. If the jackpot rolls over and more employees want to join the pool, they have to pay for the upcoming drawing and for any previous drawings that led up to it.
Ÿ Make a list of who is part of the pool before the drawing.
Ÿ Decide if employees who regularly contribute to pools but are absent on the day tickets are purchased should be included. Mulso, who is buying the tickets Friday, covers for people on vacation without any concern. “Doing it as long as we've been doing it, we know who gets in,” he said.
Ÿ Consider before the drawing whether to distribute or reinvest small winnings. In more than 15 years of pooling lottery money, Mulso said the group's biggest win was around $32. It went back into the pool.
Ÿ Ask the purchaser to keep tickets he buys for himself separate from the group tickets. “I buy my personal tickets at a different time, different store, just so there isn't confusion,” Mulso said.
Lang also stressed the need to play responsibly, as spending $50 or $100 on tickets is not wise.
“Yes, it does increase your odds, but not really a whole lot,” he said. “You just have to get super-lucky.”
Kosiba agrees “the odds are terrible.” But that doesn't stop him from daydreaming about sharing the wealth with his closest friends.
“I'd pay off my bills and all my friends' bills, too, because what are you going to do, be rich by yourself? No. You got to take your friends with you,” he said. “You can't be rich by yourself.”
Even Jim Buscemi, the lone service department employee who rarely plays the lottery pools, can't help but be drawn into a game this big.
“It's more peer pressure,” he said with a laugh.
Sales of Mega Millions tickets end tonight at 9:44. Lang said to anticipate lines and arrive before 9:30 p.m. The drawing is at 10 p.m.