‘How can you be disappointed with $40,000 more than you had yesterday?’ Warrick Woodard petty officer 2nd class : Sailor Collects $40,000 in 3rd Trip to ‘Big Spin’

The third time wasn’t exactly a charm for the only man in state lottery history to win three appearances on television’s “Big Spin.”

Petty Officer 2nd Class Warrick Woodard, 48, of Camarillo had a chance to win up to $2 million Saturday during his unprecedented third appearance on the lottery’s television show.

But although Woodard kissed the same coin and pebbles from Mt. Fuji that he says won him $1 million on the show last year, he only won $40,000 Saturday.

“There’s nothing wrong with $40,000, but if I had worn some pins I have advertising the lottery, I would have done better,” said Woodard, a Navy boatswain’s mate at Port Hueneme. “I’m not disappointed in my penny or rocks, though--how can you be disappointed with $40,000 more than you had yesterday?”

Woodard said he will continue to buy about 10 scratch-off lottery tickets a week in the hopes of appearing on the “Big Spin” again. California State Lottery officials hold a weekly drawing of scratch-off ticket winners to select contestants for the half-hour show.

The odds of being picked three times are “really astronomical,” lottery spokesman John Schade said.

Three other people have been on the “Big Spin” twice in the three years that the show has been on television, he said.

Woodard, who earns about $25,000 a year, won $10,000 on the show in April. Five weeks later, he won $1 million, which lottery officials said he will receive in $50,000 annual installments over the next 20 years.

Woodard will net $32,000 after taxes from Saturday’s win, Schade said.

He said he plans to stay in the Navy until 1993 when his hitch is up. After that, he plans to invest his winnings in a starting a construction business.

Helen Wade of Mission Hills won $1 million on the show Saturday. Wade, a 57-year-old homemaker, said she will use the money to help members of her family, including her husband, John, a 61-year-old carpenter.

“We have no plans to travel abroad or anything like that--we like the good old U.S.A. just fine, and I don’t swim or fly,” Wade said. “But John will probably be able to retire now.”