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.
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They look nice. Congrats! I think they came forward too soon, but what the h3ll do I know...I didn't win the jackpot.
That proves you need to stay away from that greasy KFC chicken. lol
Congratulations to the Cisneros!
Congrats to the Cisneros on their win!
Self-picks. Nice.
i'm beginning to fall inlove with those $5 QUICK PICKS TICKETS. The winners only spent $10, they got two $5 quick pick tickets.
Congrats to the winners... Neat story...
From what I understand, they were not quick picks. The couple picked the numbers themselves.
They look like nice people. I'm glad for 'em.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Agree. It will be next to impossible for her to work in television, or any media outlet.
These people seem like real good folks and all. Have to say I have a bit of an issue, though, in this economy especially, with a mega-million winner insisting they will continue working.
I'm not suggesting she lay on a beach every day with martini in hand; I understand the need to keep active and involved. But she doesn't need a paycheck and there's plenty out there, including those in her industry (no, I'm not in her industry, lol), that do.
Devote and volunteer your time to schools, senior centers, hospitals, churches, hospices, libraries...you name it, there's dozens of places any big-lotto winner can spend their time and energy helping. Hell, she could volunteer her time at the television station.
If you don't need the paycheck, and you certainly don't with this size winning, give it up for somebody who does.
To Gilbert & Jacki Cisneros - Thank God, for he knows all our needs - you are the Mega Millions - your life, and the life of your family - has now changed - forever - Do not worry about what people think you should do, Jacki, it's non of my business, if you work or you quit your job - and no one else should have anything to say - right now your family is in the news media - it goes with all Mega winners. I am happy that you won! May the Lord, keep his hand of protection upon your family.
Naneki
Fallbrook, CA
I agree with you Naneki, I live in NY but I have been to lovely Fallbrook several times amd almost rented a home there, and I have purchased several lottery tickets in California and NY but have never won anything big, however, I am very happy for Jacki and Gilbert and people who think she should quit her job are really out of line to suggest it. The winning couple risked their own money to buy the tickets even though her own husband was out of work. If Jacki decides to quit, maybe the person who takes her place at work should reimburse Jacki for all the money Jacki spent on lottery tickets over the years! Many people want to take advantage when someone makes money due to a stroke of luck or saavy investing, but I'm sure the majority wouldn't have offered any money to help out any of the big lottery winners while they were risking their hard earned money to buy lottery tickets or pay their mortgage so they might have a secure financial future.
Congratulations to Gilbert and Jacki!
Congratulations Cisneros Family ... you certainly spent a lot of money on 1 drawing's chances, yet your #s came up with a BIG, BIG MegaMillions jackpot win!
Without further ado, I intend to possess the sole winning jackpot ticket of tonight's MegaMillions jackpot -- I'm ready!
If somebody in California wins again I hope it's Itchyban.
Still no mention on the MegaMillions website as to the winners name. IF these people are the real winners, they should have turned in their ticket first and then gone to the press. They have plenty of time to decide how they want to be paid.
Congratulations to them. I know the $80,000,000 I'm going to win tonight is only a fraction of that. But hey, I'm not complaining!
Congratulations!
Congrats I have an eye for the PB now since I can play it here.......I want to win the PB record jackpot...and I know I will in either end of May or beginning of June.....new largest jackpot coming to mwah.....Good luck to all......
Don't get too worried about the sequence of publicity surrounding the way they claim their prize. It has happened many times where the winner comes forward in one way or another to the press before the official claim.
What's important is that they not officially claim the prize before they have done all the right preparations with a financial team. You don't want to accept a check of that size before everything is in place.
The fact that their identities are known before officially claiming the prize is not the #1 best way to do it, but certainly not in itself harmful.
Who pray tell is Itchyban..
He's a close friend who promised to share the pot with everybody if he wins.
I am very happ for you, always go were your heart leads you.
Are you sure he plans to share the pot or the good news of him winning the pot?
Oh definitely, me and Itchy go way back. We're tight as twin fiddles in a Bob Wills band.
He'll probably back me up in the next post.
No doubt about it.
How lucky is that""''' WOW
Darn it we had 7 family members and each kicked in $5 for total of 35 tickets and No Luck. This guy stops in for BBQ and gets Lucky. That's how luck works. Congrats to the winners but I always like it even kor when a Group of 5 or more peoples win.
They were on Oprah today...did you see it?
I would not go on TV after a big win...I would just do what I had to at the lottery place and then go about my life...going on talk shows and cable tv shows isn't for me.