Nine
Bank of America employees are calculating a
quarter-million dollar Georgia Lottery win. The group
matched the first five winning numbers in the Nov. 13
Mega Millions drawing and won the game’s $250,000 second
prize.
Erica
Smith of Austell claimed the prize Thursday after a
co-worker realized the office pool held a winning
ticket.
Georgia Lottery winner Erica Smith (left) is
pictured with Bank
of America office pool member Marsirra
Smith
“We
were just in total shock. Disbelief!” said Smith,
33.
Winning
numbers for the drawing were: 15-26-36-39-40 and the
Mega Ball was 45. The group randomly selected the lucky
numbers. Scandinavian House Grocery, located at
710
Peachtree St.
N.E.
in Atlanta
sold the winning ticket.
“I’m
going to pay bills,” Smith shared. “That’s true for
everybody.”
As
with all other Georgia Lottery games, proceeds from Mega
Millions will benefit education in the state of
Georgia
. Since its first year, the Georgia Lottery Corporation has
returned over $9.5 billion to the state of
Georgia
for education. All Georgia Lottery profits go to pay for
specific educational programs including
Georgia
’s HOPE Scholarship Program and
Georgia
’s Prekindergarten Program. More than 1 million students
have received HOPE, and more than 850,000 4-year-olds
have attended the statewide, voluntary prekindergarten
program.