Winner Stories

Famous Teacher Lottery Pools: Educators Who Won Together

FutureEdges

Updated October 26, 2026 · 8 min read

Teachers and school staff are among the most dependable lottery pool players there are. They share a staff room, a routine and a long list of reasons to chip in a few dollars every week. Every so often, those pools win. From a $656 million Mega Millions jackpot in Maryland to a $1 million Powerball prize hidden inside a math textbook in Kentucky, here are the best-documented teacher lottery wins, and what each one teaches about running a pool.

📌 About These Stories

These are drawn from published news reports. Details and dollar figures vary slightly between outlets, and some reports don't give every date, so we've said so where that's the case.

The Wins at a Glance

Pool	Where	Game	Prize	Members
"The Three Amigos"	Maryland	Mega Millions (2012)	Share of $656 million	3
Middleton Cheney Primary	Northamptonshire, England	UK lottery (2005)	£1.8 million	40
"Jones 30"	Florence, Kentucky	Powerball (2024)	$1 million	30
Crestview Elementary	Ashland, Ohio	Powerball (2025)	$1 million	10
Kansas City-area teachers	Blue Springs, Missouri	Powerball (2025)	$50,000	27

1. The "Jones 30" — Florence, Kentucky (Powerball, $1 million)

Thirty current and former employees of Rector A. Jones Middle School in Florence, Kentucky, called themselves the "Jones 30": counselors, administrators, special-education teachers, the school nurse and retirees among them. The group had pooled money for the Kentucky Lottery for more than eight years, and had played the same Powerball numbers every week since 2019.

In a January 2024 drawing their ticket matched the five white balls, a $1 million prize. The organizer, a retired math teacher, noticed the next day. She had hidden the ticket on page 200 of a math textbook: "No one looks in a math book. I knew it would be safe there." The group carpooled to the Kentucky Lottery office after work to claim it.

Per person: $24,000 after taxes
Store bonus: $10,000 to the Kroger in Hebron that sold the ticket
What next: Some invested, some planned travel or home repairs, and the group said it would keep playing together to stay connected.

Lesson: consistency and a careful organizer. The group kept the same numbers and the same routine for years, and the person holding the ticket kept it safe.

2. Crestview Elementary — Ashland, Ohio (Powerball, $1 million)

Teachers and staff at Crestview Elementary School in Ashland, Ohio, had played Powerball together for years. A pool of ten won $1,000,004 with an auto-pick ticket bought at a Circle K in Seville, in an August 2025 drawing. Each winner stood to receive about $72,000 after state and federal taxes.

What made this story memorable was not the money. One member, a kindergarten teacher named Mary Jo, had died after a battle with cancer. The group had kept including her, contributing her share each time they played. When the ticket won, they gave her portion to her children. Their organizer called her "our guardian angel."

Lesson: decide what happens to a member's share before life gets complicated. This group made a generous choice together, and had the trust to make it.

3. "The Three Amigos" — Maryland (Mega Millions, $656 million)

The biggest teacher pool win on record happened in March 2012. Two Maryland public-school teachers (an elementary teacher and a special-education teacher) and an administrative support employee pooled $60 and bought 60 tickets at three different locations. One quick-pick ticket, bought at a 7-Eleven in Milford Mill, matched the numbers in a record $656 million Mega Millions jackpot, shared among three winning tickets nationwide.

CBS Baltimore reported that each of the three would receive almost $35 million. They stayed anonymous, said they planned to invest carefully and meet with financial advisers, and intended to keep teaching: "they can't give up their kids." The store that sold the ticket received a $100,000 bonus.

Lesson: spreading tickets across locations and keeping the group small and simple are both fine, but so is a calm, planned reaction to a win.

4. A Kansas City-Area Teacher Pool (Powerball, $50,000)

A group of 27 teachers in the Kansas City area won $50,000 in the December 20, 2025 Powerball drawing, matching four white balls and the Powerball on a ticket bought at a Casey's in Blue Springs, Missouri. The jackpot that night was $1.5 billion. "We play together sometimes when the jackpot gets high," a group representative said. "It was kind of unbelievable. It took a minute to sink in."

Lesson: not every pool plays weekly. Some only buy in when the jackpot is big. Those groups still need a clear rule for who is in on a given draw.

5. Middleton Cheney Primary — Northamptonshire, England (£1.8 million)

In February 2005, a 40-member syndicate at Middleton Cheney Primary School won £1.8 million. Each member received almost £45,000, which the Times Educational Supplement reported they spent on holidays, home improvements and paying off debts.

Lesson: a big pool turns a big prize into many modest, life-improving ones, and forty people sharing a win is a lot of people to keep track of.

More School Syndicates in the UK and Ireland

School syndicates are especially common in the UK and Ireland, where staff-room pools are a long tradition. Reported wins include:

St Andrew's RC High School, Kirkcaldy, Scotland: a 15-person syndicate won £53,642 on EuroMillions in late 2024. The organizer, a maths teacher, said he spotted the lottery email after the draw but was too busy to check it right away.
Coláiste Na Sionna, Banagher, Ireland: a 35-member group of teachers, staff and retirees collected €65,861 on the Lotto in 2016.
St Hilda's Special School, Athlone, Ireland: teachers, special-needs assistants and support staff won €52,401 on the Lotto after a 30-year wait.
La Mare De Carteret High School, Guernsey: teaching and support staff split a top Christmas lottery prize of £696,740 and chose to stay anonymous.

What These Teacher Pools Have in Common

Small contributions, long habits. Years of a few dollars a week, not big bets.
One trusted organizer. Almost every story has one person who buys and guards the ticket.
A mix of roles. Teachers, support staff, administrators and retirees all in the same pool.
Calm reactions. Most kept working, stayed private or gave back.
Modest wins are common. Most of these were five-figure or low-six-figure prizes, which is the realistic outcome for most pools.

Lessons for Your School Staff Pool

Write down who is in

Staff turnover is constant: retirements, transfers, substitutes, new hires. A pool of 30 will have people join and leave every year. Keep a dated member list and decide how newcomers and leavers are handled. See our group agreement guide.

Decide the "what if" rules in advance

What happens to a member's share if they retire, move or pass away, as at Crestview? What about late payments? See what happens when a member misses a payment.

Protect the ticket

The Kentucky organizer's math book trick was clever, but a shared photo and a shared record are even better. Anyone should be able to see what the group bought.

Check your district's rules

School districts often have policies on money collection or gambling on school property. Check yours, collect payments on personal time, and keep the pool voluntary and off school systems.

Plan the tax paperwork

Large group prizes need to be reported so each person is taxed on their own share. See our guide to IRS Form 5754 and our jackpot checklist.

💡 Built for Staff-Room Pools

FutureEdges lets an organizer record members, contributions and tickets in one place that everyone in the group can see, so a pool can survive retirements, new hires and a busy school year.

"The best staff-room pool is the one where nobody has to ask who's in, who paid, or where the ticket is."

Frequently Asked Questions

Can teachers run a lottery pool at school?

Often yes, but check your district's policy first. Many districts restrict collecting money or gambling on school property or using school email. Keep the pool voluntary, collect on personal time and use personal devices.

What happens to a member's share when they retire or leave?

Whatever your agreement says. Common choices are that leavers are out from their last paid draw, or that retirees can keep playing if they keep paying. Write it down before it comes up.

How should a big staff pool split a modest prize like $50,000?

Usually in equal shares among everyone who paid for that draw, unless your rules say small prizes roll into future tickets. See how to split winnings fairly.