Here’s the best advice you’ll get today: When someone suggests you should play lotto for a big jackpot, it’s best you listen. That’s what happened in a Wells Fargo bank in July, and because they listened 11 of the employees are now millionaires.
They’re the lucky winners of the $543-Million US MegaMillions jackpot and at last we know who they are.
This draw has been quite eventful since it was first advertised with a jackpot of $521-Million. However after sales figures were updated winning ticket holders were eligible for $543-Million. And for the first time since May the MegaMillions jackpot was won.
The winners are colleagues from a Wells Fargo branch in San Jose. California's lottery released the winners’ names as Roland Reyes, Alejandra Villanueva, Alice Socorro, Joji ZiegeleIt, Marigold Villaruz, Rita Sinha, Murad Kureshi, Nga Lam, My Nguyen, Solonachchige Dissanayake and Isabel Dominguez.
It was Mr Reyes who suggested ‘We should play’ after noticing how big the MegaMillions jackpot was at the end of July. Because they listened to his words these colleagues are now the winners of the biggest MegaMillions win in California lottery history. They quickly became local celebrities when locals heard about their luck with the winning lottery numbers 1-2-4-19-29 and MegaBall of 20.
If you do decide to play as a group - whether it’s with your friends, family or colleagues - just be sure you have an agreement in place before you buy your lottery tickets. Lottery history has shown how group winners can sometimes disagree on just who has won. Luckily this group are all still friends so they can keep on serving the bank’s customers with the broad smiles they had these past few days.
Yes, all the winners say they will keep on working despite becoming millionaires overnight. Why? Because they love their jobs. But of course the winnings will help their life goals come true sooner rather than later - modest goals such as traveling the world, paying off mortgages and helping their loved ones.
The group opted for the lump sum payout, which before taxes makes them each $29-Million richer overnight. Someone else who is smiling almost as broadly as they are is Kewal Sachdev from Ernie’s Liquors. He won $1M simply for being the vendor where the winning ticket was bought.
Will you take the hint? Shouldn’t you play too? There’s already €99M waiting in tomorrow night's EuroMillions lottery draw.
