By Todd Northrop, with sources from KTVB
BOISE, Idaho — It's a great start to 2012 for five friends, who combined their resources and won a million dollars.
The five, who all work at Walmart in Ontario, Oregon, had the winning ticket in the Idaho Lottery's annual $1,000,000 Raffle.
Ontario, Oregon, is located right on the border of Oregon and Idaho.
The winners split the grand prize five ways and picked up their big checks at the lottery offices in Boise Tuesday. Each winner got $200,000 before taxes.
For months, they each put $10 per paycheck into a pool, then bought 70 tickets at a Maverik Store in Weiser, Idaho.
Getting the good news was actually a little frightening at first for one of them.
"Eddie thought he was getting fired because they called him into the office at work," said Raffle winner Pamela Linville of Ontario, Ore.
"Yeah, I went to work earlier, an hour earlier, and I heard my name called through the intercom and I go, oh, I'm going to the office. I hope I ain't getting fired. And they just said congratulations, we had won. It was exciting," said Raffle winner Eddie Yrigez of Nyssa, Ore.
The other winners are Aaron Anderson of Ontario, Monica Draper of Payette, Idaho, and Aaron O'Neil of Weiser, Idaho.
They all say they'll use the money to pay off bills.
Idaho's $1,000,000 Raffle is held annually in the state, drawn at the end of December. In the game, 250,000 of the $10 raffle tickets are available for purchase, starting in November.
In addition to the single top-prize winner of $1 million, the raffle awards several other cash prizes, including:
- 4 prizes of $25,000
- 250 prizes of $250
- 500 prizes of $100
- 1,750 prizes of $50
The $1,000,000 Raffle drawing was held on Dec. 30, 2011, and the full list of winning numbers was published on Lottery Post's Idaho Lottery Results page that evening.
Several state lotteries hold raffle drawings around Christmas and New Year's Day each year.
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$200K each to start the New Year...Nice
Congrats to the Lucky 5
After taxes it isn't a life changing amount of money,but it is still a nice prize.Congrats to the five winners.
It would be life changing for me. NO more mortgage payments!!!
Nice, and apparently no disgruntled co-workers making bogus claims to a share so far.
More like less than $150,000 after taxes. I would never pool with others for such an expensive ticket with a lower payout. I would rather take the loss or win myself.
I'd love to hit the Texas 2 Step game for 200k. Even after taxes I would have enough to pay off debt and get the kids thru college.
Congrats to these folks.
Congrats to the lucky winners.
As much as each member of the pool contributed to buy their tickets, it would be hard for a disgruntled co-worker to make a case of having contributed a dollar and now expects to share their winnings. It's usually those pools that only cost a dollar or two to join that disgruntled co-workers try and make a case that someone in the pool should have contributed an extra dollar or two to cover them.
Groups win a large percentage of lottery and raffle jackpots. Good luck to them.
I don't think you learned anything about honesty and integrity when you were growing up so it's probably a little late for me to explain it to you.
Good Luck!
No, usually only win the lesser than first place, jackpot amounts.
Almost every week there is a story about a group winning a jackpot. Smart people know how to oversome the long odds.
Smart people don't pool with other people, especially for small Jackpots.
Exactamundo, and especially not with someone outside the country.