For a Few Dollars More, a Jackpot : Lottery: A family that moved to Orange County from New Jersey will split a $17-million share of the largest-ever Lotto payoff. How much was spent? $30.
Joan Young had only bought her usual few dollars worth of lottery tickets. But the $30 gamble paid off big.
Young, who recently moved to Laguna Niguel from New Jersey with her husband, split the largest-ever Lotto jackpot with three other Californians. Her share: $17.14 million.
“To adopt a California phrase: It’s wow, awesome!” Young said Saturday at a press conference at the Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles.
Young beamed excitedly as she sat under glaring TV lights. Seated to her right was another winner, Lydia Neufeld of Simi Valley. And standing behind was her daughter, Donna Picciano, who gripped the back of her mother’s chair and smiled.
Young said she will use her new-found wealth to travel and help keep her father, Charles Stahl, healthy. Stahl, 78, who has a consumptive heart disorder, was at the press conference, peeking between TV cameras at his daughter and granddaughter from his wheelchair.
The windfall will be paid in segments of $685,600 each year for the next 20 years. Young said she will divide the annual money evenly with her husband, Charles; her daughter and her daughter’s husband, Frederick Picciano.
The four chipped in $1.25 apiece Tuesday after a turkey dinner to buy five entries. Before buying the winning ticket, the family had already bought $25 in Lotto tickets. Young bought the winning ticket at a nearly empty Circle K store at 30009 Crown Valley Parkway, near her home.
“I knew the lines were going to be bad on Wednesday, so I went on Tuesday,” she said.
Her suspicions were right, said John Garner, South Coast regional manager for the California Lottery. Lotto machines throughout California sold 100,000 tickets per minute as the deadline approached for the jackpot, he said.
After the six balls fell into their slots, revealing that the Youngs had the randomly selected six numbers, they were shocked.
“We checked the numbers over and over,” Charles Young said. “We didn’t believe it.
Joan Young, 55, had worked as legal secretary in Hackensack, N.J. Her 60-year-old husband retired after working 38 years for Public Service Electric & Gas Co. in Newark, N.J. The couple celebrated their 37th anniversary on Valentine’s Day.
“It’s more than what we’ve made all our lives,” said Joan Young of their winnings.
Donna Picciano, 35, left her hometown of Teaneck, N.J., three years ago when her husband, who is 38, landed a job with Tarbell Realtors in San Juan Capistrano. Her parents joined them in Orange County in October, 1988.
California schools will receive $65 million from ticket purchases for Wednesday’s game, the lottery’s Garner said.
“It helps the schools, and that’s the best part,” said Picciano, who plans to vacation soon in Hawaii. She has not yet decided whether she should quit her job as a legal secretary in Irvine.
Young confessed that she is not a big gambler. She usually wagers $5 when there are big jackpots.
Before becoming a millionaire this week, she had won $5 a couple of times and $70 once, she said.
“I’m not really a wild player,” she said. “I wouldn’t play $100.”
Circle K Corp. will receive a $85,700 jackpot bonus commission for selling a winning ticket.
The two other winners, not present at the press conference, were Michael Yang of Valencia and George E. Carpenter of Long Beach. The winning numbers were 12, 21, 27, 34, 41, 44. The bonus number was 6.