Luck Strikes Spinner With $1 Million : Lottery: A business executive from Brea hits the jackpot with a scratch-off trip to Big Spin.

Dean Foley is confident that he will be more than able to face up to Uncle Sam when he comes for a chunk of his $1-million winnings from Saturday’s Big Spin.

Foley, a Brea resident and head of taxation for the food giant Beatrice/Hunt-Wesson in Fullerton, said he will stash most of his windfall in a variety of investments and a fund for early retirement.

Paying taxes on large winnings “are the kinds of problems you’d like to have,” said Foley, one of 12 California Lottery scratch-off players who were whisked to the state capital for a turn of the big wheel Saturday.

Other than a promise to treat his daughter Jill to a long-hoped-for vacation in Ireland when she graduates from Cal State Long Beach next year, Foley said he has not made any other spending plans for the $40,000 he will receive each year for the next 20 years.

The Fullerton-based corporate executive became the day’s big winner when the ball bypassed slots that offered prizes from $10,000 to $100,000 and landed in the $1-million hole.

“I wasn’t really thinking about it,” Foley said. “I would have been happy to get the $10,000.”

In fact, Foley said, he was so numb from the thought of standing in front of an imposing bank of television cameras that he had trouble thinking about money at all.

“I was thinking about how terrible I looked on TV,” Foley joked minutes after he became a millionaire. “I was extremely nervous. Now I know why I am not working in TV.”

Foley said that the $1 million he won in the Big Spin is only the latest in an ongoing lucky streak.

Last month, he said, he won big during a gambling trip to Las Vegas, although he declined to say how much he took home with him.

Two weeks ago, he won $60 in the state lottery when he had four of the six numbers drawn. And last Wednesday, he collected five bucks for having three numbers.

“When you’re on a streak, I guess there’s no stopping you,” Foley quipped before making plans for a night out on the town in Sacramento with Jill and his other daughter, Kim, both of whom accompanied him Friday from Brea.

An avid lottery player, Foley learned that he was eligible for the Big Spin a week ago, not by watching the weekly Big Spin broadcast on KCOP-TV, but by neighbors, who called him to tell him that his name had been drawn.

“It was chaos for the whole week” while he prepared for the trip to Sacramento, Foley said. It even affected his ability to concentrate on his duties at Beatrice foods. “They really didn’t get much work out of me,” he said, still breathless from the appearance, which was scheduled to be aired on Channel 13 at 7 p.m. on Saturday. “They were all wishing me good luck.”

Foley picked up the scratch-off ticket that earned him a spin on the wheel from the Country Hill Liquor and Deli in Brea, where he spends up to $10 a week for a chance at winning money in the lottery.

He sent the ticket in to lottery headquarters and then immediately forgot about it. The Monday after his name was drawn to appear on the Big Spin, he got a call from lottery officials. “Then I realized it was really happening,” he said. “It feels pretty good.”

Other winners were Cluster Christian of Running Springs, who won $60,000; Ralph Gallardo of Chino, Rodger Waples of Riverside and Manuel Ramirez of El Monte, who each won $50,000, said lottery spokesman John Schade.

Carolyn Casetta of San Mateo, Maximino Cruz of San Jose and Tracey Reed of Los Angeles each received $40,000, Schade said.