to the deep end of these risky % workplace pools? more chances to hit that jackpot. >> okay. we need to get going and buy tickets. >> reporter: and increasing he odds is exactly what billie karger, an accounts payable clerk of ft. worth, texas, thought she'd do. >> i do have butterflies. they're just right in here. just, oh, $3,000 of tickets. >> reporter: it's hours before wednesday's billion dollar drawing and we were with billie as she heads to a brand-new gas >> i don't see a line.

began. with their newfound freedom, one co-worker split the money with a spouse and promptly got divorced. one moved to the philippines and took up pig farming. none anticipated getting but it happened. >> that caught us all off guard. >> for a while in our office, it was a standing joke, "okay. who sued the lucky seven today?" because people kept coming out of the woodwork. >> reporter: one jealous co-worker tried convincing a judge that he was part of the ol, even though he was off the day they purchased the ticket. the judge didn't buy it.

emotional. who gives money to new people who you just met, you know? >> reporter: sadly, happy endings ke this seem as rare as a rainbow unicorn when really big money is at stake. take the case of the california hospital workers dubbed "the lucky seven." a few years ago the winners were barely pouring champagne celebrating their $315 million prize when the problems began. with their newfound freedom, one co-worker split the money with a spouse and promptly got divorced.

tonight at 10... >> announcer: lottery hangover continues on "20/20" with nick watt. >> hello. >> reporter: just before christmas, 2010. a burly man walks into an iowa gas station. he buys two items.

forward just yet. >> reporter: that winning "hot lotto" ticket goes unclaimed. >> someone has the ticket. the iowa lottery wants to give away the money. >> reporter: almost a year goes by and in iowa you've only got a year to claim your winnings. nothing. no one. not a peep. >> and everybody was anxiously anticipating finding out who won. >> was it somebody who'd had the ticket stolen from them? had somebody maybe been killed over it? maybe it was just a guy who was trying to hide money from his wife that he was divorcing. >> reporter: $16.5 mill just waiting in the bank then -- >> ladies and gentleman, we have the winning ticket.