Janesville employee pool wins lottery drawing
JANESVILLE The office lottery pool has been a tradition for a group of employees at Lab Safety Supply in Janesville, but winning anything significant was always the punch line of the group’s jokes.
Not anymore.
A machine-selected number won the group $10,000 in Saturday’s Powerball drawing. The 17 co-workers were only one number away from splitting a multi-million dollar prize, but no one’s complaining, said ringleader Chad Cleasby of Orfordville.
The group will split about $5780 after taxes and get $340 each, a decent return for their $2 investment, Cleasby said.
Cleasby didn’t even realize they were winners until Wednesday afternoon when he checked Saturday’s ticket at recently opened The Station, 2601 W. Court St., Janesville. The group began buying tickets there when one man’s girlfriend got a job at the location.
“Nobody had won Powerball so I figured we had won $14,” Cleasby said.
Employees at the store scanned the ticket and directed him to the state lottery offices in Madison to collect the winnings. Cleasby said none of the group members believed him at first.
“I had to send them a picture of the ticket with the winning numbers printed out next to it on my cell phone,” he said. “A bunch of them still won’t believe me until their cash is in hand.”

Aug 18, 2009 at 8:09 a.m.
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My friend was one of them. Damn, Vegas would have been nice trip.
Aug 14, 2009 at 11:29 p.m.
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Cost for a single Powerball ticket = $1.00.
Cash value of Saturday Powerball lump sum prize after taxes = $70,410,750.00.
Cash value of Saturday Powerball 30 annuity prize payments after taxes = $143,242,500.00.
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Statistically, you have next to no chance of winning, but seven tickets have won in 2009 so far, eleven tickets won in 2008, sixteen tickets won in 2007, etc. Someone buys the winning ticket and there is no reason why it can't be you... other than the fact that I already bought it. ☺
Aug 14, 2009 at 4:15 p.m.
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Congrats to the winners!
Once I have my lottery ticket in hand, I get more than a buck's worth of daydreaming entertainment alone, so whenever I do win I consider it clear profit. ;)
Aug 14, 2009 at 3:08 p.m.
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Congrats to those to won. A win is a win is a win. However, the only thing that would have made this story remotely interesting is:
A. They won millions or
B. A single man, women, or couple won the whole 10,000 and needed the money.
For a pool of people working people to end up with 370 each is really not that news worthy and a testiment to how desperate we are for positive news around here. I can see it now "Let me buy the bar a round of beers....wait how many people are in here?"
Aug 14, 2009 at 2:13 p.m.
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"hey callitaslseeit maybe you should open your eyes before you start talking about how much money we spent on the power ball. In the last ten years we have spent NO MORE then $30. So lets see $30 and we won $370.00 MMMM... Not to bad in my eyes open yours"-Hoseman1
MikeF see the winner hoseman1's the "last ten years" comment. It was stated as "tradition" so I threw the ten years in for simple math and the fact traditions aren't formed over shorter periods like, 5 or 6 years.
Aug 14, 2009 at 2:07 p.m.
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Where did the idea they have played for 10 years come from? I don't see that in this story.
Aug 14, 2009 at 1:36 p.m.
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Yeah, that sounds like a group that averages $3 a year on lottery tickets. I am skeptical on the $30 over ten years figure stated by hoseman.
Aug 14, 2009 at 1:26 p.m.
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I know one of the guys who won and it sounds like this group of people want to go buy more lotto tickets with the winnings - crazy...
Aug 14, 2009 at 1:24 p.m.
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Alot of places frown at the office pools and some ban it. Wouldn't it suck if they got fired for 340 bucks?
Aug 14, 2009 at 1:06 p.m.
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How in the world does the Gazette call it a "tradition" if you spent $30 in ten years? That just makes this more of a non-story than it was before.
Aug 14, 2009 at 1:06 p.m.
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Well, the math is pretty clear. If the entertainment is worth it to you, by all means go ahead (it funds education and all that). But don't fool yourself that you're going to be one of the few that makes back what they put into it over a lifetime.
Aug 14, 2009 at 12:51 p.m.
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hey callitaslseeit maybe you should open your eyes before you start talking about how much money we spent on the power ball. In the last ten years we have spent NO MORE then $30. So lets see $30 and we won $370.00 MMMM... Not to bad in my eyes open yours.
Aug 14, 2009 at 10:56 a.m.
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Just the facts Ma'am. The lottery is a regressive tax. Wa Wa Wa.......
Aug 14, 2009 at 10:45 a.m.
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I thought someone had really hit the big one here by the sounds of it. I was like "Good for them, awesome!" Turns out they probably didn't even cover what they've spent over the last few years on tickets. A win is a win so congrats to the wieners. The local news must be really short on topics. It won't be long before they break out a story about a guy who painted his tractor Packer colors.
Aug 14, 2009 at 10:15 a.m.
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$2 a week for 10 years = $1040.00.
Winning share of $10,000 pot = $340.00
Aug 14, 2009 at 10:09 a.m.
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I was one of them at lab and no we didn't ask are boss to be in it.
Aug 14, 2009 at 9:56 a.m.
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There have actually been several big Badger5 winners in Janesville. A $70,000, a $64,000 and a couple of other ones. I haven't heard any details about any of them.
Aug 14, 2009 at 5:14 a.m.
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I thought someone recently won $70K playing Badger5? The lottery website said a winning ticket was sold in Janesville, but no information or story has surfaced.
Aug 14, 2009 at 12:21 a.m.
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Every manager's nightmare, the employee lottery pool hitting the big one (unless the manager is also in the pool).
Aug 13, 2009 at 11:07 p.m.
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How great is that!!!!
Good for you all.
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