L.A. TV employee wins $266M Mega Millions lottery jackpot

May 6, 2010, 7:18 am (33 comments)

Mega Millions

Winning ticket was sold at a Hawaiian barbecue restaurant

PICO RIVERA, Calif. — His wife wanted KFC. But a Southern California man insisted on barbeque.

After Tuesday night's Mega Millions drawing, he can have all the barbeque he wants.

It was during Gilbert Cisneros' visit to L&L Hawaiian Barbecue at 8760 Washington Blvd. in Pico Rivera that the winner of the estimated $266 million Mega Millions jackpot, bought his ticket. The numbers in Tuesday night's multi-state Mega Millions draw were 9, 21, 31, 36, 43 and the Mega number is 8.

Half of the winning ticket belongs to Gilbert's wife, long time NBCLA television newswoman Jacki Wells Cisneros.

Late Wednesday night the couple sat down and spoke exclusively with a local reporter. You could say there was some drama involved in the discovery of that winning ticket.

Jacki was working her overnight shift at NBCLA when a news bulletin moved the winning ticket had been purchased in Pico Rivera at L&L Barbacue. Always alert news producer Jeff Evans remembered Jacki was from Pico Rivera and handed her the advisory.

After digesting the information (it was 2 in the morning) Jacki figured she had a tiger by the tail and she was not going to let go.

She woke Gilbert up at home and demanded he retrieve his L&L lottery tickets. Jacki said "he (Gilbert) was reading the fourth and the fifth number and all of a sudden he said I think we won...I just screamed and cried."

Gilbert told Jacki "it's 2 in the morning, I told her to calm down calm down." Jacki made Gilbert repeat the winning numbers over and over. "I told her to stop yelling, we want to be anonymous, I don't want anyone to know, but so much for that," Gilbert said. Jacki must love working at NBCLA because she finished her shift and left for home at her normal off time of 8 a.m.

Here's the jackpot total with all the zeros: $266,000,000. It just looks better that way.

The couple said they picked the numbers at random. The couple also said that Gilbert recently lost his job.

They could take a one-time payout of roughly half the $266 million jackpot or opt for annual payments over 25 years.

The owner of the restaurant will get a half of 1 percent of the winnings with a total cap at $1 million. With this large of a prize, the retailer can expect the cap. Lottery officials were at the restaurant Wednesday to present the owner with a check.

The estimated jackpot is the eighth largest in the history of the game, which began in 2002. The odds of matching all five numbers and the Mega number is 1 in 175,711,536.

Twenty-eight tickets — seven sold in California, three each in New Jersey and Virginia, two each in Michigan, Missouri, New York and Ohio, and one each in Arizona, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Texas — had five numbers, but didn't have the Mega number.

The seven sold in California are each worth $179,428, while the other 21 are each worth $250,000, California Lottery officials announced.  California law requires major payoffs of lottery games to be paid on a pari-mutuel basis.

The Mega Millions game is played in 38 states and the District of Columbia.  Two more states — Maine and South Dakota — will be adding the Mega Millions game this month.

The jackpot for Friday's draw will be $12 million.

News story photo(Click to display full-size in gallery)

News story photo(Click to display full-size in gallery)

NBCLA, Lottery Post Staff

Comments

THRUST's avatarTHRUST

They look nice. Congrats! I think they came forward too soon, but what the h3ll do I know...I didn't win the jackpot. 

 

Party

sully16's avatarsully16

HyperAwesome , Congrats to them.

BazookaJoe

That proves you need to stay away from that greasy KFC chicken. lolGo to fullsize image

konane's avatarkonane

Congratulations to the Cisneros!  Party Party Party PartyParty

ThatScaryChick's avatarThatScaryChick

Congrats to the Cisneros on their win! Smile

time*treat's avatartime*treat

Self-picks. Nice.

THRIFTY's avatarTHRIFTY

i'm beginning to fall inlove with those $5 QUICK PICKS TICKETS. The winners only spent $10, they got two $5 quick pick tickets.

tntea's avatartntea

Congrats to the winners... Neat story...

Todd's avatarTodd

Quote: Originally posted by THRIFTY on May 6, 2010

i'm beginning to fall inlove with those $5 QUICK PICKS TICKETS. The winners only spent $10, they got two $5 quick pick tickets.

From what I understand, they were not quick picks.  The couple picked the numbers themselves.

rdgrnr's avatarrdgrnr

They look like nice people. I'm glad for 'em.

JWBlue

Quote: Originally posted by Todd on May 6, 2010

From what I understand, they were not quick picks.  The couple picked the numbers themselves.

It is not clear.

The first line hints that by going to the Hawaiin place, it played a part in their fate.  If they picked the numbers themselves, it would not have mattered where they went.

It says they played random.  It could have been random numbers they came up with themselves or random numbers they allowed the machine to create.

I found this in another article:

"Jacki Cisneros said she intends to keep working.

 

I've worked since I was 14," she told the station. "So the idea of not working is just, it's a foreign concept for me. Even growing up, my grandparents instilled a really strong work ethic with my family, so the idea of not working just seems weird to me."
I wonder how long she will work.
rdgrnr's avatarrdgrnr

Quote: Originally posted by JWBlue on May 6, 2010

It is not clear.

The first line hints that by going to the Hawaiin place, it played a part in their fate.  If they picked the numbers themselves, it would not have mattered where they went.

It says they played random.  It could have been random numbers they came up with themselves or random numbers they allowed the machine to create.

I found this in another article:

"Jacki Cisneros said she intends to keep working.

 

I've worked since I was 14," she told the station. "So the idea of not working is just, it's a foreign concept for me. Even growing up, my grandparents instilled a really strong work ethic with my family, so the idea of not working just seems weird to me."
I wonder how long she will work.

She will soon find that she will not be able to keep working in that field.

She will be a bigger story than any story she happens to be covering. And being in a high-profile position will attract too many nuts wanting to be famous for some devious deed done on camera or in proximity to major news coverage probability.

It's a shame but that's the way it is.

LottoLin

California seems like a Lucky State to live in where Mega Millions is concerned,  In March of this year  that 29 year old fella won the $133 million Jackpot from California.

Now these folks won but doubled thier pot to $266. They didn't say if they were taking the annuity or lump sum. With that much you would have thought they would have sought out financial counciling , I hope they do right with all that cash and Congratulations to them on the Win. 

But she will not be able to keep her job for long. People will be badgering her about her having a job that someone else that needs it should be working there instead of her. It happened to another Big Winner that wanted to stay working at his job and he quit, to much harassament from people he thought were friends, because  they knew people that needed that job.

CAL-LottoPlayer

I think it's great they won.  But it was a big mistake to go public.  Now they're going to have them coming out of the woodwork after their winnings.

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