3 of 4 Claim Lotto Prizes; 1 Unseen

A bartender from Panorama City, a retired chief petty officer from San Diego and a computer systems programmer from Castro Valley were identified Tuesday as three of the four players who will divide a lottery jackpot of $15.4 million.

The identity of the fourth winner remained a mystery Tuesday. Lottery officials knew only that the player bought his or her ticket at an outlet in San Francisco’s Chinatown.

The four winners correctly picked all six numbers in last week’s Lotto 6/49 game. They will receive $3.98 million--minus 20% for federal income taxes--in 20 annual payments. The yearly checks will amount to $159,200 for each winner.

‘A Great Life’

“I’m going to have all those things that a great life can offer,” said Federico S. Aguimatang Jr., 41, a retired chief petty officer from San Diego. “I’m going to buy a new car, move to a luxury home and have a vacation, probably somewhere in Europe where all the good things are.”

Aguimatang, father of three children ranging from 15 months to 16 years, also said he would help family members in the Philippines.

“I don’t even know what I’m going to do with the money,” said another winner, Robert Earl Jorgensen, 43, of Castro Valley, southeast of San Francisco.

Jorgensen decided not to go to work Tuesday at his job as a computer systems programmer at Shasta Beverages in Hayward, but said he will continue to work. Jorgensen said he had no particular “system” for picking winners, but rather “just scratched out a pattern” on each of 10 tickets he bought at a San Leandro liquor store.

Wants to Be Citizen

Another winner, Armuffo M. Chanquin, 56, of Panorama City, could not be reached Tuesday. Chanquin told lottery officials he is a bartender from Guatemala who wants to become a U.S. citizen.

The winning numbers were selected Saturday night, but the three winners were not identified until Tuesday because state lottery offices were closed for the weekend and then on Monday for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

The fourth winner failed to appear at any lottery office Tuesday. The winning ticket was bought in a San Francisco Chinatown market.

The winners were announced as the Little Hoover Commission issued a report accusing the state lottery of operating outside the budgetary, purchasing and contracting constraints imposed on other state agencies.

Seeks Change in Law

The commission, which seeks to get state agencies to operate more efficiently, called on the governor and Legislature to support laws requiring the lottery to undergo the same budgetary oversight as other state agencies.

As it is, the five-member Lottery Commission, a part-time board, determines how the lottery spends its $70-million annual administrative budget.

“The report goes over old, tired, well-beaten ground, most of which has been dealt with,” lottery spokesman Bob Taylor said, adding that the lottery organization will issue a response and give it to the Legislature.