Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Mega Millions mania grips Delco as jackpot hits $1.6 billion
HAVERTOWN >> Lottery fever was in full epidemic mode Tuesday as would-be billionaires jockeyed to buy tickets for the $1.6 billion Mega Millions jackpot.
For Randy Testa that presented a dilemma. In the past he would add his name to the office pool, but since retiring from a public sector job in the spring that has not had that option.
“I hardly ever play the lottery, put when the pot gets that big I want in, but my former co-workers wouldn’t including me,” Testa said Tuesday afternoon just hours before the winning numbers. So he turned to social media.
“There is a Havertown Community Facebook page that has 13,000 people on the page, out of a fluke I posted,” said Testa. I got a pretty good response; 152 people wanted in.”
That was Sunday. Testa got to work, he created a spreadsheet to track the people who joined in. To get payments he offered Paypal, then Vimeo, which are both online payment systems. As the requests rolled in, Testa began purchasing tickets using $1,400 from his bank account as he waited for the money to clear the electronic services. A fellow Facebook member, David Chick offered to create a contract with digital signatures for Testa, so he took him up on that.
“The problem is you don’t have instant access to the Paypal and Vimeo money and my cash was drying up,” Testa said. He offered to meet people to collect the $20 cash to be in the pool.
“One woman contacted me from Florida where she was on vacation. She really want to be in the pool.” Testa said. “She couldn’t get me the money in time so I told her to buy a ticket in Florida, send me a photo of the numbers and she could be part of the pool.”
The Mega Millions charges $2 per line of five numbers, which are between 1 and 70, and a power number between 1-25.
Testa said doing the math, the $1.6 billion lottery would be a cash option of $800 million minus 40% for taxes for a price of roughly $3.6-7 million per person if there are no other duplicate winning tickets out there. In the end 131 people contributed to the pool for a total of $2,620.
As for the chance of fraud, Testa said all the electronic cash is documented. For the people who brought him cash he sent a
digital confirmation.
“This was a pretty big undertaking and it was bit overwhelming. It drags
out. I still have people trying to get in,” Testa said.
Testa said with his winnings he will pay off his mortgage, maybe buy a boat, and if he doesn’t, there is alway the $600 million dollar power ball on Wednesday.