Lotto Pots Hold Joys, Trials for Big Winners

Immediately after winning an $11.2-million Lotto jackpot two weeks ago, Louie Asimakis vowed that the windfall wouldn’t change his life one bit.

But within a week, the 80-year-old Ventura man quit his job as a ranch hand and found himself fending off requests for loans. He won’t get his first annual $404,640 check until next month, but he has already hired a financial adviser and changed his phone number to avoid hustlers and newfound friends.

Asimakis is heading down the well-trodden path of big lottery winners, who find their lives unexpectedly altered when they become overnight millionaires.

“One of the first things that winners would tell me is that their lives haven’t changed, which is absurd,” said H. Roy Kaplan, a Florida sociologist who has conducted a nationwide study of lottery winners.

Since 1986, 76 Ventura County residents have won a million dollars or more from the state lottery, money that will be paid in annual checks over 20 years. Most of the count’s top 10 winners say their lives have changed considerably, mostly for the better.

“They say money can’t buy everything, but it certainly helps,” Kaplan said.

With windfalls ranging from $3.6 million to $17.1 million, the county’s biggest winners have retired early, bought new homes and cars, traveled extensively. Some have launched new businesses, established trusts for their children, bought homes for their parents and given generously to their favorite charities. One even bought her church a building.

Most winners complain about the endless line of moochers seeking a loan, charities pestering them for donations and investment consultants eyeing their business, if not their money.

“We should all have their problems,” Kaplan said. “By and large, they’re much more financially secure, and in our society today, being financially secure is very important.”

Many lottery players dream, and sometimes threaten, that they will quit their jobs if they get lucky. But winners who actually quit their jobs have usually been dissatisfied with them in the first place, Kaplan said.

Other times, he said, winners launch new ventures in pursuit of a new dream.

According to Kaplan’s study, Eric Daily, 31, of Camarillo is someone who was able to make a career change after winning the lottery.

In 1986, Daily was working as a produce clerk at Vons Market in Westlake Village when he qualified for the Big Spin television program in Sacramento.

“I told my manager, ‘If I hit it big, I’m not coming back,’ ” Daily said. “If it’s under a million, it’s a two-week vacation. If it’s over a million, it’s a two-week notice.”

It turned out to be $6.3 million and a two-week notice.

Daily now owns and operates Oz West, a bookstore in Ventura specializing in rare and reader copies of children’s books. He has been interested in Oz memorabilia since childhood, and his winnings gave him the financial freedom to do what he really wanted, Daily said.

“Otherwise, I’d probably still be stacking apples.”

More often, Kaplan said, lottery winners keep working and retire early.

Marcia Christopher, 59, of Oxnard was working in customer service at a local water utility when she won $5.9 million. She and her husband, an electronics engineer, continued to work for two more years until they decided to retire early in 1990.

“I really liked my job,” Christopher said.

They still live in the same house and she still drives her 1981 Buick.

“We’re both very frugal people,” Christopher said. “It’s not like we went out and bought a lot of things. I think that the greatest thing we see from it is that we can now offer a good education to our grandchildren.”

According to Kaplan, many winners lavish their largess on their children or their church.

Lydia Neufeld, 44, bought an old synagogue for her congregation, the New Pact of God Church in Simi Valley, after winning $17.1 million in 1990.

She declined to be interviewed for this story, but in previous interviews Neufeld said it was the fulfillment of a promise made during hard times.

“It’s a desire I’ve had in my heart for quite a while,” Neufeld said. “Way before we had the money, there was a desire there for us to do this. I think God blessed us because he knew our hearts.”

Kaplan said: “She’s a typical, typical example. Many winners view their winnings as a gift from God, and they feel they have to spend it wisely.”

For Cynthia Wright, winning the lottery was a joyous event that turned her life around.

She and her husband, John, were renting a dilapidated house in Piru when she won $3.6 million in August, 1989. The money allowed the couple to move back home to Springtown, Tex., and buy a house, Wright said.

Her brick home, complete with new furniture, is a long way from their Piru shanty with the leaky roof and no air conditioner.

Her husband, who was a carpenter, retired at 45. He spends most of his time entering fishing tournaments now, she said.

Dipping into her winnings, Wright helped set up her father in business, purchased a home for her in-laws, and bought new cars, new clothes and new furniture. She said the money improved her marriage too.

“You’re more relaxed, and you don’t worry about the day-to-day situation,” said Wright, who couldn’t afford to open a savings account until her windfall. “We used to argue all the time over money. You also have more time to do things together.”

Kaplan said his research showed that lottery winners tend to have fewer divorces than the rest of the population.

“The money frees them to really have some quality time together,” he said.

Marcia Christopher, who won $5.9 million, laughed at the notion of low divorce rates among lottery beneficiaries.

“Let’s get real, it’s probably because they don’t want to lose the money.”

But winners also cite a downside to becoming fabulously rich. Many become wary and suspicious of strangers and sometimes friends, particularly after being hounded by scam artists.

“There’s been quite a lot of harassment,” said Geraldine Asimakis, Louie’s wife, who manages the family’s finances. “One woman wants us to send her family to Micronesia. Another lady wants money for her son’s wedding. We haven’t even received our first check yet. You’d think they’d give us some time.”

Geraldine Asimakis eagerly awaits the first check, which will allow her and her husband to take long-fantasized ocean cruises and fix up their modest house in Ventura.

“We’ll probably invite more of our friends out to dinner,” she said.

“You say that, and there will be people lining up outside,” her husband warned.

“I meant our real friends,” she amended.

Elizabeth Simpson, whose son won $15.7 million last year, said, “You become everybody’s friend, you become real popular.”

David Simpson was unavailable for an interview because he wants to safeguard his privacy. His mother, who lives in Wisconsin, declined to say whether he had moved from Oxnard to prevent hustlers from finding him.

“He’s just a good guy, he doesn’t talk about the money,” Simpson said.

Bob Taylor, a spokesman for the state lottery, said, “Generally, I would say that winners have a tendency to shelter themselves a bit, and I think that’s a natural reaction.”

During his study, Kaplan said he found that many winners changed their phone numbers to avoid being bothered by swindlers. Some moved.

“Even after I tracked down this one guy, he pretended that he hadn’t won the lottery,” Kaplan said. “You can catapult people from one economic status to another, but a lifetime of behavior patterns changes much more slowly. People who are introverted and suspicious, their anxiety level increased.”

But he said others who are outgoing and extroverted can often handle their new celebrity status in keeping with their usual gregarious nature.

“It really has a lot to do with personality.”

Some Ventura County winners say they don’t tell people about their windfalls because they fear being treated differently.

“There are some of my friends who don’t know I’ve won the lottery,” Christopher said. “I really value my friendships.”

Family relationships sometimes change as well, winners say.

Christopher said things were initially strained with her children after she won.

“I think they must have expected that we would hand over the money,” she said.

Wright said: “You just learn to start saying no. They keep coming to you with their sad stories.”

Despite the drawbacks of being rich, Kaplan said that during his interviews with hundreds of lottery winners, “no one has ever proposed giving the money back.”

Very few manage to lose their money, he said.

“You can’t lose it all, because it’s given in installments,” Kaplan said.

For the most part, winners lead happier, less stressful lives, Kaplan said. The money frees people to do what they want--which is retire or work less or get into a business that they really enjoy, he said.

“And most of them,” he added, “still play the lottery, even though they don’t have to anymore.”

County’s Top 10 Lottery Winners

$17.1 million, Lydia Neufeld of Simi Valley, Feb. 21, 1990

$15.7 million, David Simpson of Oxnard, April 29, 1992

$11.2 million, Louie Asimakis of Ventura, Jan. 10, 1993

$9.7 million, Kathleen Romines of Port Hueneme, Feb. 13, 1988

$6.3 million, Eric Daily of Camarillo, Feb. 1, 1986

$5.9 million, Marcia Christopher of Oxnard, July 30, 1988

$5.6 million, Anthony Linkiewicz of Ventura, July 26, 1989

$5.5 million, Robert Davis of Oxnard, Aug. 2, 1989

$4.4 million, Rosemary McCarthy of Thousand Oaks, Sept. 19, 1990

$3.6 million, Cynthia Wright of Piru, Aug. 26, 1989

Source: California Lottery.