10 More Chosen to Spin Lottery Wheel for Try at $2 Million

Ten more Californians were selected Tuesday for a chance to win up to $2 million in the state lottery.

The 10, along with 10 others selected last week, will gather at a Hollywood television studio Monday night and take turns spinning a wheel to determine whether they will win $10,000, $50,000, $100,000 or $2 million.

Estelle Feuers, president of Los Angeles City College--one of the thousands of educational institutions statewide that will receive roughly a third of the income from the lottery--plucked the latest candidates from a revolving drum containing the identification numbers of 6,250 winners of the California Jackpot instant $100 prize.

Those chosen at Tuesday’s drawing at a lottery office in Whittier include Daniel Cruz, 33, of Panorama City, an aircraft products inspector; Joseph Frontino of Riverside; Vernon Hessing, 33, of Chatsworth, a computer operator; Abed Jebaieh, 27, of Simi Valley, owner of a liquor store; Lorenzo Martinez, 46, of Huntington Park, a bus driver with the Southern California Rapid Transit District; Charles Moore of Beaumont; Richard Rhoan, 52, of San Diego, a bird keeper for the San Diego Zoo; Linda Scott of Jackson; Donna Sobb of Sacramento, and Ben White of Los Angeles.

Tuesday’s drawing was made earlier than scheduled because ticket sales have been much faster than expected. Nearly 150 million tickets had been sold through last Friday, according to Lottery Director M. Mark Michalko.

Michalko said Tuesday that the state attorney general’s office has advised him that it is legal for retailers to give out free lottery tickets with minimum purchases.

The Lottery Commission had requested the opinion from Atty. Gen. John Van de Kamp last week after some law enforcement officials questioned the legality of the giveaways.

Many of the promotions are similar to one advertised by the Alpha Beta supermarket chain, which offered one free ticket with a $10 minimum purchase. Vons and Safeway gave away free tickets with the purchase of 12-packs of soft drinks.

In another development on Tuesday, Lew Ritter, director of security for the lottery, announced that a man suspected of forging a $5,000 winning ticket had been arrested in Fresno and other arrests are expected in similar cases across the state.

Ritter said the forgeries involve slicing matching numbers off several tickets and pasting them together to form a single, winning ticket.

The man arrested in Fresno was identified as Harry Begosian, 60. Ritter said Begosian presented his ticket Oct. 15 and filed for a $5,000 prize.