Employees at the downtown El Paso gas station that sold Saturday's winning Texas Lottery ticket are anxiously awaiting to hear if they will get a cut from the share of the winnings given to the vendor.
"I think the morale would be very high if we did get some," said Sandra Lane, the gas station's assistant manager. "I'm not greedy. I was thinking maybe $1,000, you know, or maybe $2,000."
The bearer of the winning ticket with the numbers 9, 26, 28, 29, 40 and a bonus ball of 16 has yet to claim his or her prize. The winning "Quick Pick" ticket was worth a record $145 million and was sold at a Chevron station in downtown El Paso.
By selling the winning ticket, the vendor gets a 1 percent share of the lottery total, which in this case adds up to $1.45 million.
A share of that could go a long way for the four full-time and three part-time employees who earn from $5.50 to $7 an hour. Lane said one of the part-timers is expecting her third baby soon, and would certainly welcome any lottery bonus money that the company sends her way.
As for the Chevron station, "It's the very first big jackpot we've had," Lane said in a telephone interview from her home Sunday.
She said she didn't know if there is a company policy about sharing with employees the store's 1 percent payoff for selling a winning lottery ticket.
Lane said the gas station is one of a chain of nine or 10 owned by C&R Distributing. Attempts by the Chronicle to locate the owner or a corporate representative for that chain were not successful Sunday.
Lane, who has worked at the station for four years, said lottery-ticket business was quite brisk from Wednesday through Saturday last week. "We normally sell 200 or 300," she said. "On Saturday we sold 1,000."
Across the state, people were reportedly waiting in lines at grocery stores and gas stations to buy chances at winning the Texas lottery's largest-ever jackpot.
Saturday's winner was the first since the Feb. 25 payoff of $12 million, and only the third so far this year.
Lane also was anxious to find out whether the winner was one of her regular customers who promised to reward her if she sold them the winning ticket.
"We're hoping it's one of our regulars," Lane said. "There's a doctor that comes in and buys tickets twice a week. I have another customer, I don't know his name, but he goes in about twice a week to buy his Texas Lotto, his Mega Millions. I'm hoping that it is one of those guys, or one of the ones who promised us a car."
ALL I CAN SAY IS WOWWOWOWOWOW!!!!!!!!! Finally, the jackpot was won this past Saturday. I had EL PASO, TEXAS on my mind for weeks because I figured there was a GOOD chance that the jackpot would hit in that city. O my goodness!! I just pray someone I know won the money....lol
ALL I CAN SAY IS WOWWOWOWOWOW!!!!!!!!! Finally, the jackpot was won this past Saturday. I had EL PASO, TEXAS on my mind for weeks because I figured there was a GOOD chance that the jackpot would hit in that city. O my goodness!! I just pray someone I know won the money....lol
it would be nice if the owner shares with some generius money like $100,000 each but they be luckey to get $10,000 each let alone $1,000!
Somewhere it says the store will get "only" $500,000.