After over a week, the winner of the $534 million lottery jackpot has been revealed, except it's more than one person who got lucky.
A Santa Clara County office pool with 11 members showed up to the Lottery’s East Bay District Office in Hayward on July 25 with the Mega Millions ticket matching the numbers of the largest jackpot in California Lottery history, according to Cal Lottery.
“It was spur of the moment. ‘Hey, did you hear about the jackpot? We should play,'" one of the winners, Roland Reyes, told Cal Lottery.
Reyes declined to say where the group worked and only said they worked in the financial industry but Cal Lottery later confirmed the names of all 11 winners who works at a Wells Fargo.
In addition to Reyes, the winners were identified as Marigold Villaruz, Rita Sinha, Murad Kureshi, Nga Lam, My Nguyen, Solonachchige Dissanayake, Isabel Dominguez, Alejandra Villanueva, Alice Socorro and Joji Ziegele, according to Cal Lottery.
The pool members' ages range from 21 to 60 years old, according to Cal Lottery. Everyone pitched in $2.
Reyes said he figured they had a better chance of winning if they bought the ticket from a small shop.
U.S. & World
The winning ticket was sold at Ernie's Liquors on South White Road in San Jose. Lottery officials confirmed last week it was the lone jackpot ticket in the $522 million draw.
The owner of Ernie's Liquors received a $1 million bonus for selling the jackpot ticket, lottery officials said. Members of the Sachdev family gathered at their store to celebrate their winnings. They said some of the money will go to charities and to their employees.
"United States is a country where you can realize your dreams really well. This country has given us the opportunity to do that," Kewal Sachdev said. "I wish these winners very well and hope they do some good work, some charity work, and take care of their families and friends."
In December 2013, a jackpot Mega Millions ticket worth more than $640 million was sold at Jenny's Gift Shop on Tully Road in East San Jose.
