Liquor Store Has Luck on Tap

What is it about Bluebird Liquor in Hawthorne?

It looks like any neighborhood liquor store, but Lotto devotees will drive here from as far away as Whittier and Pasadena, insisting something about the place reeks of good luck.

One of the tickets that will share in the $118.9-million jackpot was sold at Bluebird Liquor. And in June, 1988, the store sold the winning ticket to a $4.5-million jackpot that was never claimed. The wins make Bluebird Liquor one of 16 retail stores out of 9,500 statewide that have sold two or more winning jackpot tickets, state lottery officials said.

The store’s good luck is no secret. From the moment Bluebird Liquor opened its doors Thursday at 7 a.m., customers began lining up in the hopes that the store’s good fortune might rub off on them.

“I’ve really been lucky all my life,” said Bluebird owner Frank Kumamoto, who displays above his cash register the dates and jackpot amounts of all the tickets that have won more than $1,000. He said he will split the $59,400 commission with his employees that he earned for having sold the winning ticket.

That generosity extends to customers as well. At 11:30 a.m., when the line for next week’s Lotto bulged to more than 50 people, Kumamoto gave away free slices of pizza to keep spirits high.

“Frank’s got a positive attitude,” said Art Davis, an Inglewood Planning Commissioner who has won about $125 from tickets purchased at Bluebird in the last three years. “He’s friendly to everybody. . . . If you don’t win you still feel good.”

“I just sell the dream,” Kumamoto said. “Most of my customers know they are buying the dream. They know the odds are so high, they probably won’t win. But they just have fun doing it.”