Woman Wins $3 Million in Lottery but Hometown Is Blacked Out on TV

KABC-TV in Los Angeles canceled the California Lottery’s “Big Spin” television show Saturday shortly before it was to have aired at 7 p.m.

The decision meant that much of Southern California did not see the making of its first $3-million winner. Bonnie Snell, 54, of Huntington Beach, an assistant restaurant manager whose daughter had purchased for her a California Lottery ticket last month, won the top jackpot when she spun the lottery’s Wheel of Fortune.

But her spin was not aired in Snell’s hometown or elsewhere in the Los Angeles area.

The program was canceled by KABC program director Craig Haffner, said a station employee who declined to give his name but said he was speaking on behalf of weekend news producer Jerry Mathews. The employee said Haffner gave no reason for the decision, and other station officials could not be reached for comment.

KABC’s “Eyewitness News” said at the end of its 6:30 p.m. broadcast Saturday that the station would be unable to show the program, but did not elaborate.

In its place, KABC aired “At the Movies,” a program featuring Chicago movie critics Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel that had occupied the 7 p.m. Saturday slot before it was bumped earlier this month by the lottery spin.

On Friday, KGO-TV in San Francisco announced that it would not broadcast the show, with station officials declining further comment. State Lottery Director Mark Michalko, who could not be reached for comment Saturday, has said previously that executives of both stations had told him that they did not think their contract to carry the lottery show was binding.

Stations in major markets reportedly have grown dissatisfied with the program’s projected advertising revenues, which are expected to drop because of a recent shift of the show from Monday nights to Saturday nights.

Snell is the second person to win as much as $3 million in the lottery. The first, Walter Simpson of Simi Valley, won the jackpot on Dec. 30.

“Everybody has a dream, one chance at the brass ring,” Snell said. “I don’t suppose anything like this will ever happen again.”

An hour after the lottery’s 100-segment Wheel of Fortune landed on one of the five $3-million sections, Snell was still trembling as she was being photographed.

Snell has been assistant manager of Don Jose’s Mexican restaurant in Huntington Beach for 17 years. “They’ve been asking me how much I’d have to win before I’d quit. I said, ‘Oh, a million.’

“But I’m not going to quit right away. I’m supposed to work tomorrow morning, and unless my flight doesn’t get away, I’ll do it,” Snell said.

Snell is the 22nd person to win $1 million or more in the lottery but the only one to win more than $100,000 at Saturday’s spin-off.

The 19 other finalists won a total of $970,000.

So far, the lottery has awarded just under $50 million in prizes.

Snell said she does not buy many lottery tickets. The one that won her $100, and eventually qualified her for the spin-off, was a single card bought by her 29-year-old daughter Jan at a liquor store early in December.

About three weeks later, Snell was notified that her ticket had been drawn and that she would spin for the big money, with a minimum prize of $10,000.

“That was unbelievable,” she said. “For the past two weeks I’ve been sort of a basket case. We all along said that we’re going to do it. You can’t believe the power of concentration.”

Snell’s sister, Helen Slezinger, flew in from Dearborn, Mich., to be with her sister. But when the spin-off was transferred from Hollywood to Sacramento, she stayed in Huntington Beach with their 95-year-old mother, Wilma McGee.

“We wanted her to win so bad; I think we actually helped will it for her,” Slezinger said.

Snell said she will use the money to pay some bills and help her sons and daughter.

A few hours after her winning spin, Snell said it appeared that her lucky number, 11, had influenced her winning.

She said her sister flew in on Flight 117 and arrived at 11:52, that the spin was on Jan. 11, and she was the 11th to spin.

“I was very positive (of winning), still it was unbelievable--terribly unbelievable,” she said.

Times staff writer Ralph Cipriano also contributed to this story