$8.3-Million LOTTO Jackpot To Be Split Between 3 Winning Tickets Bought From Same NYC Bodega

In a bizarre turn of events, New York Lotto’s whopping $8.3-million jackpot is set to be split between three winning tickets that were all sold from the same bodega in Manhattan.

All three winning tickets were reportedly sold at a Manhattan convenience store aptly named Lucky Choice Convenience located on West 72nd Street, between Columbus and Amsterdam avenues, on the Upper West Side. Each winning ticket is worth prize money of $2.76 million before taxes, the New York Post reported.

The three tickets were the only ones to match all six winning numbers (05, 10, 14, 20, 23, and 28) during Wednesday, Nov. 24 night’s draw. Players must match six numbers drawn from a field of 1 to 59 in their lottery tickets in order to win the New York Lotto jackpot.

Lottery officials have yet to reveal further details about the winning tickets. They also did not disclose whether they were all bought together by the same group of people or if the incident was just a wild coincidence.

A staff member at the store that sold the tickets said that he had no idea who had bought the tickets, nor when they were purchased. The store's manager was not immediately available to comment, PIX11 News reported.

The odds of winning one LOTTO ticket are 1 in more than 45 million. The three winners now have a year to claim their $8.3-million prize money.

In a similar but unrelated incident, three friends who have been purchasing lottery tickets for years are sharing a $21-million jackpot in the Lotto 6/49 draw held on Sept. 22.

Kenneth Nitsotolis, of Markham; and Bill Tepelenas and Dino Martino, from Toronto; have reportedly been purchasing lottery tickets together for Lotto 6/49 and Lotto Max draws since 2005, according to toronto.com.

One morning, after Martino woke up and checked his email, he realized that they have won a lottery prize of $21,185,218.10.

"I opened the email and confetti appeared on the screen," Nitsotolis said as he visited the OLG Prize Centre in Toronto on Nov. 20. "I rubbed my eyes and thought we won $21,000, but there were too many numbers."

After realizing that he had won the lottery, Nitsotolis then FaceTimed his friends to share the big news with them. Nitsotolis said that his friends did not initially believe him and he had to send them a photo of the win to convince them.

The three winners have not yet revealed how they are planning to spend their prize money.