When does a winning lottery ticket worth $1 million not make someone a millionaire?
Gaggle of Twin Cities co-workers divvying up $1M lottery prize
January 30, 2020 at 1:30AM
When the prize needs to be split 28 ways, a group of co-workers in Coon Rapids is finding out.
Saturday's multistate Powerball drawing yielded the runner-up payout to "Team APG," made up of 28 employees at Adams Publishing Group, which produces community newspapers across Minnesota and in 19 other states.
Nearly all on the team came to Minnesota State Lottery headquarters in Roseville on Tuesday to claim their winnings.
"I had $1 million sitting on my desk since Saturday," said Dustin Uran, of Minneapolis, who purchased the winning ticket among several that he bought.
Uran said he learned of his group's good fortune at a lottery retailer Monday morning. Each team member will receive $35,714 before taxes.
"I scanned it and it said, 'Winner. Contact lottery office,' " he recalled. "So, I scanned it again, and I thought, 'That's different.' I knew it must be $50,000 or $1 million — or a glitch."
Uran went to his office and looked up the numbers and saw that one of the tickets had matched the first five numbers drawn to win $1 million but lacked the Powerball number, which would have meant hitting the jackpot of $373 million.
Uran said in an e-mail to the others, "Apparently nobody checks the tickets I send. Check the tickets."
He said that he always e-mails copies of the tickets before the drawing "for transparency."
The winning Powerball numbers in Saturday's drawing were 2-9-17-36-67, and the Powerball number was 18. There was no jackpot winner, so the pot for the twice-weekly drawing stood at $394 million on Wednesday.
Uran bought the tickets at the Speedway gas station at the intersection of Round Lake Boulevard and NW. 119th Avenue in Coon Rapids. The retailer earns a $5,000 bonus for selling the winner.
Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482
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