Winner Stories

Massive Lottery Wins Shared by Entire Communities

FutureEdges

Updated October 26, 2026 · 8 min read

Most lottery pools are a handful of friends or coworkers. But every so often, a pool grows to include a whole village, a whole street or a good fraction of a small town, and when it wins, the effect on a community is unlike anything else in lottery history. Here are the most remarkable community-wide wins we could find, from a Belgian village of 165 winners to a fishing community in Quebec, and what they teach about running a very large pool.

📌 About These Stories

These come from published news reports. Currency conversions, headcounts and dates sometimes vary between outlets, and we've said so where that's the case. Older reports are noted by year.

The Wins at a Glance

Community	Game	Year	Winners	Reported share each
Olmen, Belgium	EuroMillions	2022	About 165	About $915,000
Peschici, Italy	Italian lottery	1998	100	Almost $400,000
St. Paul's River, Quebec	Lotto Max	Not dated in reports	14	About $3.5 million
Lonaconing, Maryland	Powerball	2021	Not disclosed	Not disclosed
Wentworth, NSW	Powerball (Australia)	2023	10	Over $4 million
Lithgow, NSW	Oz Lotto	2024	15	About $890,000

Amounts are in the currency reported at the time; the Quebec and Australian figures are in Canadian and Australian dollars.

Olmen, Belgium: 165 Residents, EuroMillions (2022)

The biggest pure community win we found happened in the Belgian village of Olmen. A local shopkeeper, Wim Van Broekhoven, regularly organizes a group pot for the EuroMillions draw, with each participant putting in €15. In 2022, the pot won. Reports say about 165 residents shared roughly $150 million, around $915,000 each, tax-free.

Lesson: the shopkeeper model. A trusted local figure who runs the pot regularly is exactly how very large pools stay organized.

Peschici, Italy: A 100-Person Syndicate (1998)

In November 1998, a syndicate of 100 people in the Adriatic town of Peschici won Italy's biggest lottery jackpot up to that point. Each member had paid about $15 into a computer-generated group bet. Reports at the time put the winnings at almost $400,000 each. "The whole town won," one resident said.

Lesson: large pools have been winning for decades. What changes is only the paperwork.

St. Paul's River, Quebec: 14 Neighbors, Lotto Max

St. Paul's River is a remote fishing village on Quebec's Lower North Shore, in the municipality of Bonne-Espérance. Fourteen residents who had mostly played together for 18 years won a $50 million Lotto Max jackpot, roughly $3.5 million each. They bought the ticket at the community's only general store, the St. Paul's General Store.

Some winners planned to buy vehicles or renovate; some seniors planned to retire, and one fish-plant worker in her 70s had to be persuaded to leave her job. None planned to leave the community.

Lesson: long-running pools earn their luck through loyalty. The group's 18-year commitment is what made it a community institution.

Lonaconing, Maryland: The "Power Pack" (Powerball, 2021)

In January 2021 a single ticket at Coney Market, a convenience store in the small western Maryland town of Lonaconing, won a $731.1 million Powerball jackpot, the fifth-largest in US history at the time. The town had lost its iron, glass and coal industries over the decades and had a poverty rate above 22%. Maryland allows winners to stay anonymous, so nobody knew who had won.

In late May 2021, a group of Lonaconing residents calling themselves the "Power Pack" came forward. They took the lump sum of $546.8 million and said they had "no plans to change their lifestyles." The store's 11 employees shared a $100,000 bonus. Reports don't say how many people were in the group.

Lesson: even when a win is enormous, groups can stay private if state law allows. Know your state's rules before you win.

Wentworth, New South Wales: 10 Locals, Powerball (2023)

In August 2023, ten residents of Wentworth, a small town on the border of far south-west New South Wales, shared a $40 million Powerball prize. They had each bought a share in a syndicate at their local newsagent, and each took home more than $4 million.

Lithgow, New South Wales: "Kingdom Cash" (Oz Lotto, 2024)

A 15-person syndicate of friends calling themselves "Kingdom Cash" won a division one prize plus seven division three prizes on Oz Lotto in May 2024, with a ticket from Top End Newsagency in Lithgow. The total was $13.3 million, or about $890,000 each. Some members hadn't yet been contacted when the news broke, which is itself a lesson about keeping a current member list.

Evart, Michigan: A Town Invited In

The most unusual community win of all didn't depend on luck. Jerry and Marge Selbee of Evart, Michigan, invited friends and neighbors to invest in a company that bought tickets in a game with a roll-down feature. Their story inspired the film Jerry & Marge Go Large. Read the full account in our Jerry & Marge Go Large article.

When One Win Lifts a Whole Town: Saint-Michel, France

Not every community win comes from a community pool. In 2009 an anonymous family in the small French town of Saint-Michel won €50 million on EuroMillions. According to the town's mayor, they paid off the local nursing home's debt, gave about £343,000 to a town "Housing for All" scheme (roughly 20% of the town's annual budget) and later funded an upgrade to the school cafeteria. They've kept their identity secret and kept living much as before. The mayor called it "a wonderful lesson in civic responsibility."

A Different Thing: Postcode Lotteries

You may also read about whole streets or villages winning in the UK's People's Postcode Lottery, such as neighbours at the Five Bells pub area in Tydd St Mary sharing £1 million, residents of Berneray in the Outer Hebrides, or 11 neighbours in Catsfield, East Sussex. Those are raffle-style prizes tied to a postcode, not pools that bought a ticket together, but they show how a win can become a shared community moment.

What Community Pools Have in Common

A trusted organizer at the center: a shopkeeper, a store owner or a long-time neighbor.
Small, equal buy-ins (€15, $15) that anyone can afford.
Years of consistency. The wins came after long habits, not sudden bets.
A local sales point. Usually the one shop, newsagent or general store everyone uses.
Plans to stay. Most winners say they intend to stay in their communities.

Lessons for Running a Very Large Pool

1. Keep a current, dated member list

With 100 or more people, memory won't do. The Lithgow group still had members unaware they had won. See our group agreement guide.

2. Record every contribution

If 165 people each put in €15, someone needs a reliable record of who did, and when. A shared digital record is far better than a notebook behind a counter.

3. Put the ticket where everyone can see it

Photograph it and share it with the whole pool. Transparency is how a community trusts its organizer.

4. Plan the tax and claim paperwork

Rules differ by country, and tax-free winnings in Belgium or Canada aren't tax-free in the US. In the US, a group of this size needs to report each member's share; see our Form 5754 guide.

5. Decide about privacy before you win

Maryland's winners stayed anonymous; many states require disclosure. Our jackpot checklist covers the media decisions.

💡 Built for Big Groups

FutureEdges is designed to keep a large pool organized, with every member, contribution and ticket in one record that all members can see, so a community pool can run as smoothly as a small one.

"A community pool is built on trust, and trust is built on records."

Frequently Asked Questions

Is there a limit on how many people can be in a pool?

Lotteries don't usually cap pool size, but the claim paperwork grows with every member. Some lotteries have special procedures for large groups, so call the claims office before you need it.

How does a 100-person pool collect money?

Usually through one trusted organizer with a fixed buy-in and a firm deadline, often at a local shop. Prepaying for several draws cuts down on collection work. See how to ask for pool money without being awkward.

What if some members can't be reached after a win?

That's why a current contact list matters. Keep each member's phone number and address on file, and update it whenever someone moves.