Lottery Winner Will Collect--Someday

The state Board of Control on Wednesday recommended that the California Lottery pay $50,000 to a Northridge man who mailed his winning ticket in the wrong envelope, but it still might be a long time before he gets the money.

Interior designer Emil Nicholas bought his ticket at a North Hollywood delicatessen April 29. When it turned out to be a winner, he said, the delicatessen’s owner gave him a claim form and an envelope to mail it in.

But the envelope was addressed to the lottery’s wheel-of-fortune “Big Spin” program instead of to the lottery office that handles winning tickets, and Nicholas’ ticket was bundled off to the trash, along with all the losing “Big Spin” tickets.

Nicholas had a photocopy of the ticket and witnesses who saw him buy it. He hired a lawyer to present his case to the Lottery Commission.

But the statute that created the lottery requires a ruling by the Board of Control before payment can be made on lost tickets, and lottery spokesman John Schade said this claim will be the largest such payment in the history of the game.

The previous record was $5,000.

On Wednesday, the Board of Control voted 2 to 0, with one member abstaining, to approve the payment. But there are still more hurdles ahead: The claim still has to be approved by the Legislature, and even then, lottery claims analyst Gail Bakarich said it will be about a year before payment is made.