Calif. state workers bet the same lottery numbers 10 years -- and win

Mar 22, 2007, 11:51 am (17 comments)

California Lottery

For all those who play the same lottery numbers year after year but never win, there is hope. Consider the Sacramento 20 — a group of state workers who never gave up.

Theirs is a tale of perseverance.

Twenty current or former state employees who have been playing the same numbers as a group for 10 years are the winners of Saturday's $72 million SuperLotto Plus jackpot.

"I knew 10 years ago we would win," said state Department of Transportation worker Gloria Madriz. "It was a matter of patience."

The state workers, most from the Department of Consumer Affairs, came to the Sacramento district lottery headquarters Tuesday to claim their prize.

They laughed and smiled and talked of never giving up.

"I'm very excited," said Nova Krueger, a Consumer Affairs employee, who dreamed recently that she would win the Lotto. She and her husband, Scott, plan a first-anniversary trip to Bora Bora.

The winners decided to take the lump sum cash payout option of approximately $40 million, instead of taking in payments over 26 years. Each winner gets about $2 million before taxes.

Lichine's Liquor and Deli on South Land Park Drive will receive $360,000 for selling the winning ticket.

The big win was the third jackpot ticket sold at Lichine's. In 2000 a man won a $15 million jackpot at the family-owned store, and last year another person won $4.5 million.

"I purchased it at Lichine's because it is the luckiest place in Sacramento," Madriz said. "We can vouch for that."

Retired Consumer Affairs worker Judy Taniguchi had plenty of perseverance but was never confident they would win. After all, the odds of winning the SuperLotto Plus jackpot are one in 41 million.

$72 million payday for persistence."I never thought that we would win," said Taniguchi. "It can't happen. This is really a surprise. I have a little bit of mortgage I'd like to finish paying off. I have everything I need, but there are things that I want. I can get them now. They can be little things, but they will make me happy. And of course, I can travel, go on a cruise. It's going to be great fun."

Madriz agreed that the group members want to do things like pay off debts, retire their mortgages.

"And just not worry about money," Madriz said. "We are not asking for much. I had no idea the jackpot had gone up to $72 million. This is a nice surprise."

She said the group for a decade has been playing the same 15 series of numbers, which originally were chosen at random. The numbers that came through for them on Saturday: 6, 17, 27, 36, 41, and Mega Number 3.

A lottery spokesman said the group also played the Mega Millions lottery.

It took a while to come forward to claim the winnings because Madriz, who bought the tickets, was at Lake Tahoe, and the ticket was at home.

On Monday she heard somebody in Sacramento had won.

She compared the ticket with the winning combination when she got home. Then began the pleasant job of notifying others in her Lotto club, most of whom did not believe they had won.

"We just got lucky, I guess," she said. "It was perseverance."

It is mostly the same group that began 10 years ago. Three are now retired.

Madriz said in the past she had told Jackie Sims, who collected the money for the tickets, and Paul DeSilva, the only man in the group, that it would take a decade to win.

"Who knew that 10 years and five months later I would be right?" she said.

Gloria Madriz, left, speaks Tuesday in Sacramento for the group of 20 current and former state employees who won the SuperLotto Plus jackpot drawing on Saturday. The group has been playing the same numbers weekly for 10 years. Some of the winners said they are planning to go on vacations and pay off their mortgages.

Sacramento Bee

Tags for this story

Other popular tags

Comments

MissNYC's avatarMissNYC

Am I right in saying that the numbers these people played had the same odds of winning 10 years ago as they did a few days ago?

Hammer1

I have been playing the same numbers since Texas started the Lottery and still do.

OldSchoolPa's avatarOldSchoolPa

The only numbers that matter are the winning numbers drawn!  It doesn't matter if you just thought about them or have been playing them for years!

justxploring's avatarjustxploring

I agree with you, Miss NYC and OldSchoolPa.  The odds don't change if the game is the same.  However, in FL where I play a 6/53 game twice a week, no 2 combinations have ever been repeated. 

Hammer1, like you I've played the same 4 combinations for many years.  I often think of switching to quick picks, but I have a ridiculous fear of changing my numbers.

CA LotteryGuy

Quote: Originally posted by MissNYC on Mar 22, 2007

Am I right in saying that the numbers these people played had the same odds of winning 10 years ago as they did a few days ago?

MissNYC...as long as the game is the same.  The game is currently 5 of 47 and 1 of 27.  Not sure what it was 10 years ago.

Basically every drawing is an independent event.  Others on this site may talk about streaks, hot/cold numbers, etc., but it comes down to each draw is a separate event and the odds of hitting a set of numbers are the exact same draw to draw.

LuckyLilly's avatarLuckyLilly

Quote: Originally posted by CA LotteryGuy on Mar 22, 2007

MissNYC...as long as the game is the same.  The game is currently 5 of 47 and 1 of 27.  Not sure what it was 10 years ago.

Basically every drawing is an independent event.  Others on this site may talk about streaks, hot/cold numbers, etc., but it comes down to each draw is a separate event and the odds of hitting a set of numbers are the exact same draw to draw.

I've been playing the same numbers since early 1993, only missed a couple drawings when I was out of state.  It's my turn to win, I don't care what you statisticians say.  [covering my ears and humming loudly]

MissNYC's avatarMissNYC

Quote: Originally posted by LuckyLilly on Mar 22, 2007

I've been playing the same numbers since early 1993, only missed a couple drawings when I was out of state.  It's my turn to win, I don't care what you statisticians say.  [covering my ears and humming loudly]

I kind of get that. The "what if" factor of changing the way you play will probably keep you at it for a long time. It would only be the universe's ironic sense of humor that would have the numbers come out the one week you didn't play them. It's your choice how you play, but either way, if it's meant to be it will be. Plenty of people play the same numbers, sometimes they win, sometimes they don't. Plenty of people drop $50-100 bucks when the lottos grow, only for someone who played $5 while stopping to get gas gets lucky. You never know what cards are in store for you, but that's what keeps us all playing. Oh, and it can't be your turn to win....the next time the Mega Millions gets big, it will be mine. Wink

LuckyLilly's avatarLuckyLilly

Quote: Originally posted by MissNYC on Mar 22, 2007

I kind of get that. The "what if" factor of changing the way you play will probably keep you at it for a long time. It would only be the universe's ironic sense of humor that would have the numbers come out the one week you didn't play them. It's your choice how you play, but either way, if it's meant to be it will be. Plenty of people play the same numbers, sometimes they win, sometimes they don't. Plenty of people drop $50-100 bucks when the lottos grow, only for someone who played $5 while stopping to get gas gets lucky. You never know what cards are in store for you, but that's what keeps us all playing. Oh, and it can't be your turn to win....the next time the Mega Millions gets big, it will be mine. Wink

Good luck, you can have the huge MegaMillions jackpot.   I play PowerBall and will be extremely happy when I win the "small" $20 million on Saturday.  WinkWink

justxploring's avatarjustxploring

Quote: Originally posted by LuckyLilly on Mar 22, 2007

I've been playing the same numbers since early 1993, only missed a couple drawings when I was out of state.  It's my turn to win, I don't care what you statisticians say.  [covering my ears and humming loudly]

Ouch!  Next time you leave the state, buy an advanced play.  That's what I do for the FL games.  You would be very upset if your numbers were drawn while you were on vacation or at a wedding. It's nice to know there is someone as crazy as I am who continues to play the same numbers.  I just wish they didn't change to twice a week.  I was betting $4 on Lotto and then had to double it.

By the way, LuckyLilly, I do know someone who "lost" $15 million by skipping a week.  Of course I can't know for sure, but she was 80 years old and said to me with tears in her eyes "I swear on my grandchildren" so I believed her.  (who would say that if she was lying?)

LuckyLilly's avatarLuckyLilly

Quote: Originally posted by justxploring on Mar 22, 2007

Ouch!  Next time you leave the state, buy an advanced play.  That's what I do for the FL games.  You would be very upset if your numbers were drawn while you were on vacation or at a wedding. It's nice to know there is someone as crazy as I am who continues to play the same numbers.  I just wish they didn't change to twice a week.  I was betting $4 on Lotto and then had to double it.

By the way, LuckyLilly, I do know someone who "lost" $15 million by skipping a week.  Of course I can't know for sure, but she was 80 years old and said to me with tears in her eyes "I swear on my grandchildren" so I believed her.  (who would say that if she was lying?)

Yep, I was scared looking at the numbers those 2 or 3 times I missed it, but my numbers didn't come up.  If they had come up, you'd know it because I'd be too dead to be posting here.  LOL  This was back in the mid 90's and I don't think my state had advanced plays at that time, but now I always buy 5 weeks of plays at a time even when I'm not leaving.

That poor woman, I feel for her.  I think I've read posts here that said they had lost by not playing their numbers for one reason or another.  I would be SOOO upset!

Prob988

Quote: Originally posted by MissNYC on Mar 22, 2007

Am I right in saying that the numbers these people played had the same odds of winning 10 years ago as they did a few days ago?

Yes.

KY Floyd's avatarKY Floyd

How many games have gone for 10 years without changing the matrix? The current version of CA's super lotto plus started in 2000, so if the group was playing the same numbers 10 years ago it wasn't in the current game. The article also doesn't say anything about what games they may have been playing. It's possible that they've played those same numbers in several different games over the years.

pumpi76

For the amount of money they are going to share, you know free lotto.com has a thing named FAST where you pay 14 dollars a month, and they play your numbers for you and send you an email letting you know how many you match on each drawing...FAST will play quick picks for you or you can select an option where they select the hottest numbers that have played for that month, and will play them for you every day for every drawing, and drawings are 1 or 2 times a week, so that will be like 3 tickets per drawing....If is 1 a week that's 7 tickets per drawing (and that's the only disadvantage, that you can only play 1 to 3 maybe 7 tickets per drawing)....And you may argue that they may cheat your numbers, but remember is a service you paying for, anything you can sue and win, because you are paying for that service...And is not just 1 lotto that you play but like 6 of them...One of them say you can win 10 Million (pick7) and there is one that's pick6/5 of 32 (for the car)....And what i am trying to say is that if you are going to go into a pool for Ca's Superlotto, i'll go for the free lotto because it has 26 million odds less than california's Superlotto (the one for 1 million dollars)...You may argue that you can buy more tickets with CA's superlotto, but you have the hot numbers options that you may not get with superlotto....Who knows superlotto may offer a better deal than the free lotto (it pays more than the free lotto), but i am just offering an option...And i think playing in group like a syndicate thing is illegal, i am not sure is all fussy....Free lotto also has photos of all the winners that have won, including the 10 million winners...I'll go for free lotto because i don't live in California, and i am not playing PB or MM with those long odds....

 

 

"Laura Simpson from Great Lakes, Illinois deserves to be rich....."    "She is so rare...."

RJOh's avatarRJOh

I prefer to cheat and play numbers that have never hit since the game begin, it's the same as playing the same numbers all those years and never winning anything but cheaper.

Subscribe to this news story
Guest