BATON ROUGE - Two dozen members of a local realtor's office who put together a lottery pool claimed their $1 million Powerball prize today.

The group received $700,000 to split after state and federal taxes were withheld. They said each member of the pool would receive more then $29,000 from the winnings.

The group said the win makes them feel closer to one another.

"Sharing this with each of you as friends makes this day even better," said Inex Shelton Jr. Of Greenwell Springs. "It's a once-in-a-lifetime thing that we will always remember, and we will be bonded together because of it."

The office pool was put together for the May 18 drawing, which had a record-setting $590.5 million jackpot. Their ticket matched all five white balls but missed the red Powerball.

News 2 spoke to the winners and will have reactions from their celebration tonight at 6 p.m.