13 state employees share Missouri's largest lottery jackpot

Saturday, April 15, 2006 posted 02:45 AM EDT

CLAYTON, Mo. - A group of 13 Missouri state employees have claimed the biggest Powerball jackpot in Missouri history.

The $224 million prize is the seventh-largest in Powerball history. The winners work for the Department of Social Services' office.

The youngest winner is 36; the oldest is 68.

Fifty-three-year-old Jim Wydrzynski says they are all working class. He added: --quote-- "We're all state employees so we all live paycheck to paycheck."

All employees agreed the money would change their lives forever. Some hinted they wouldn't be working a desk job much longer. One woman was about to retire anyway.

The jackpot will be split 12 ways because two of the workers split a share of the ticket. The workers all agreed to take the cash payment, which works out to be eight-and-a-half (m) million each, before taxes.

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