Millions Line Up for a Shot at $40 Million

He may have been standing in a 15-minute line to buy $4 worth of lottery tickets on a lark Friday, but Harry Anderson denied he was buying into “Lottomania.” He said he knows his chances of winning the $40-million jackpot are one in 14 million.

“My parents and grandparents would be spinning in their graves if they knew the government was taking the poor people’s money like this,” said Anderson, a computer programmer from South Pasadena, while waiting his turn at the Olympic gift shop in Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo.

But Anderson and millions of other Lotto players up and down the state queued in pharmacies, liquor stores, markets, restaurants and convenience stores in pursuit of the third-largest payoff since the California Lottery began.

Harvey Rexsteiner, owner of an Anaheim convenience store, said the Lotto rush started early Friday as morning commuters stopped in for coffee.

“From 6 to 8 in the morning we sold a lot more Lotto (tickets) and Quick Pick because of the fact that the pot is large,” Rexsteiner said. “We’ve had no lines, but there’s been a lot of activity all day.”

Difference in Strategies

David Mejia, a convenience market clerk in Costa Mesa, said he has noticed a difference in the buying strategies of his Lotto customers.

“We haven’t had as many people as we expected, but those who have come in buy $20 or $30 worth of tickets, much more than they normally buy,” Mejia said.

Although both Mejia and Rexsteiner say they like playing Lotto, only Rexsteiner had already purchased a “winning ticket.”

“I’ve got this one wrapped up already,” he said.

Lucille Jackson, who lives on disability payments, bought two lottery tickets at the Palace International Cafeteria on San Francisco’s Market Street, where the line of hopeful customers stretched out into the street.

“With this $2 I could have bought another blouse at Goodwill,” she said. “But . . . they say once in your life you are supposed to experiences riches. I haven’t yet.”

The stakes began to swell this week as Wednesday’s $22-million jackpot went unclaimed, marking the third game in a row without a winner. The prize money was rolled over into today’s game, which is expected to provide $40 million for the person or persons, if any, able to pick all six winning numbers.

California Lottery spokeswoman Joanne McNabb said the prize, although far less than October’s world record of $61.98 million, would be the eighth-largest lottery jackpot ever awarded in the United States. Four of the top 10 jackpots nationwide have been won in California, she added.

Ticket sales Thursday reached $3.9 million, far more than the $1.5 average revenue for that day of the week, McNabb said. Lotto playing hours were extended for an extra hour Friday, to 11 p.m, but officials said they expected the longest lines to materialize at 6 p.m. today, one hour and 45 minutes before closing.

$40 a Month

Meanwhile, at the Columbus Pharmacy in Los Angeles’ Chinatown, Dave Osborn, a plumber from Newport Beach, said he has been shelling out $5 a week for tickets since the lottery’s inception. He has won only once--collecting $5.

Perhaps he could have spent the money on a vacation, he mused. Yet he said he has no regrets. “I figure I could blow $5 on something a lot worse than a chance to win $40 million,” he said.

Times staff writers David Reyes in Orange County and Amy Stevens in San Francisco contributed to this story.