Calif. state workers bet the same lottery numbers 10 years -- and win
Posted: 3/22/2007 11:51:00 AM
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.
"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.
Source: Sacramento Bee
