Wallingford Powerball Group Wins $50K Lottery Prize

WALLINGFORD, CT — A group of Wallingford workers recently won $50,000 while playing Powerball in their lottery pool, according to the Connecticut Lottery.

Rich DePietro, of East Hartford, has worked for APS Technologies in Wallingford for the past 22 years. During that time, he also headed-up a lottery pool that included a number of his fellow employees, according to Lottery officials.

“Rich’s method of play was simple—he bought one Powerball ticket to cover each person in the pool, for every drawing they played,” Lottery officials wrote in a news release. “Shortly after the Powerball drawing occurred on October 15, Rich woke up and decided to check the winning Powerball numbers on the CT Lottery’s website to compare them against the 13 tickets he had purchased for that date.”

The group, which had correctly matched four numbers, plus the Powerball for that drawing, won the only $50,000 Powerball prize in Connecticut that day, according to officials.

“I saw we had the Powerball number 15 on several tickets, so I knew we won something, but then I saw four other numbers were a match,” DePietro told Lottery officials. “Once I was sure I was right about that, I sent out a group text to let everyone know we won $50,000.”

The lucky group recently claimed their prize at CT Lottery Headquarters in Rocky Hill with the winning “Quick Pick” ticket DePietro purchased at the Town & Country Package Store in East Hartford. The winners came from Cromwell, East Hartford (two), East Haven, Higganum, Meriden, Naugatuck, Tolland, Wallingford (four), and Wethersfield.

All agreed that the $50,000 prize came at a great time—just before the holidays—and will be put to good use in a variety of ways. They also said that they will continue to play together again in future Powerball drawings, according to Lottery officials.