Group of Kentucky distillery workers win $50K lottery prize

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WBKO) - 17 Barton 1792 Distillery workers carpooled to the Kentucky Lottery after work with a $50,000 winning Powerball ticket.

For over a year, each person has been paying into the weekly office pool and having co-worker Chris Smith, of Bardstown, purchase tickets for the three weekly Powerball drawings.

“We all play the lottery; every week I go around, I collect money from everybody, and we got a little pool going,” Smith said in a release. “Usually we’ll win, like, four bucks or eight bucks. Once we won $100. This weekend we won $50,000, which is a pretty good little payout for everybody.”

He bought the winning ticket on Friday, March 21. When he scanned it after Saturday night’s drawing, he said it felt “kind of scary.”

“I scanned it on the machine; $50,000 showed up, and the first thing I do is look and see who is behind me. Anybody see that?” Smith joked. “It felt pretty nice, you know? And then I took it home and scanned it on my phone just to make sure it read the same, and it did, and I was like, okay.”

A coworker sent him a Kentucky Lottery Facebook post about a winning Powerball ticket sold in Bardstown and it further confirmed its

“And I was like, it’s got to be real,” Smith said in a release

The group’s winning ticket matched four white ball winning numbers and the Powerball®, winning $50,000 from the drawing held on Saturday, March 22. The winning Powerball numbers were: 6 – 7 – 25 – 46 – 57 Powerball 12.

On March 25, the group arrived at the Kentucky Lottery headquarters where they were greeted by President and CEO Mary Harville.

Each person walked away with a check for $2,941 after taxes.

“The Kentucky Lottery’s mission is funding education and creating fun games and an amazing winner experience in our Winners Experience Lobby,” Harville said. “You could tell these winners were a tight-knit group and truly enjoyed being around each other because they were laughing and joking with one another while we were printing their checks.”

Smith said he and his co-workers started the office pool when the Powerball® jackpot rolled to over a billion dollars a year ago.

“We just kept it going and we’ll keep it going,” he said.

Walmart in Bardstown will receive $500 for selling the winning ticket.

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