More Than 1,000 LI Facebook Moms Join Powerball Pool
PLAINVIEW, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- More than 1,000 people on Long Island have pooled their money for a better chance at winning Wednesday's record Powerball jackpot.
Ali Kusinitz, 45, said it all started with a passing comment on Facebook that spiraled out of control. She asked a group a mothers from Plainview what they'd think of pooling their money together and the response was huge.
"It's been really good, but just overwhelming," Kusinitz said.
The 1,225 participants have contributed $10 each to greatly improve their chances of winning the $1.5 billion prize, WCBS 880's Mike Xirinachs reported.
"We thought maybe, you know, a few dozen, maybe a hundred or so, not 1,200 people," Kusinitz said.
Kusinitz said she collected the money at her home at her local swimming pool, 1010 WINS' Carol D'Auria reported.
So many people wanted in that organizers were overwhelmed and had to post notices on their door not to drop money in their mail slots.
"It ended up being a big community event; people had their babies, their kids, their dogs, chatting with everybody. It was a great night, it was a great way to come together for a happy thing," Kusinitz said.
There was enough money to buy 6,000 tickets.
"It's estimated if we hit the big one we would each get about $750,000," Kusinitz said. "It's a nice amount of money but I'm not running away to Bora Bora with that type of money."
But it is enough to pay off the mortgage, college expenses for the kids and help out some friends.
With every store selling Powerball tickets like mad the Facebook moms know despite their 6,000 $2 entries they still face very long odds.
"I probably still have a better chance of being elected president and being eaten by wild dogs, but this si good, this is good," Debbie Gershow-Lindell said.
The pool participants' winning odds are about 1 in 49,000, which is significantly better than playing alone. The chances of matching all six numbers to win the jackpot are one in 292 million.
The women have spent days logging all the names of everyone who bought tickets. They said if their numbers come up, they'll get professional legal help handing out the winnings.
"Very nervous, have a put in my stomach for last two, three days, can only imagine as it gets closer to this evening's draw," Kusinitz said.
The crowds of people trying to sign onto the moms' Facebook page even had to be turned away from the local library, but the attention inspired the staff to start their own pool to buy hundreds of tickets.
"Everybody got all excited. You have to be in it to win it, so we all decided to take a chance," Elyse Klausner, Plainview-Old Bethpage Library, said.
The Facebook moms said if they win anything, part of it will be donated to the St. Jude's Children's Hospital.
If no one wins Wednesday's jackpot, Saturday's top prize will be worth $2 billion with a cash option of $1.24 billion.