LOCAL VICTORS: The California Lottery is big...
LOCAL VICTORS: The California Lottery is big business in Orange County, with 2,663 retailers selling about $3 million worth of tickets a week. . . . Since the state entered the gambling game in 1985, county residents have won more than $540 million, lottery officials say. And of the state’s 1,038 Super Lotto jackpot winners, 79 are from here. Minimum jackpot earnings: $3 million.
FRUGAL WINNER: The biggest jackpot in California was $110 million, a world record. . . . The biggest winner in Orange County is former food packer Heredia Maria Rodriguez of Anaheim. . . . After winning $23.3 million on July 15, 1992, Rodriguez, 42, finally could afford to quit her job and stay home with her two children. Husband Roberto also quit his job as an Irvine hotel waiter. . . . But their only luxury has been unlimited time now with their children. Their heftiest buys: a modest home and family cars. “Sometimes it still seems all like a dream,” Rodriguez says, but she wants her son and daughter “to realize that they have to work, they have to study, so they can be somebody. . . . Everything in life is sacrifice.”
SCHOOL DOUGH: Tired of bad news about the government’s shrinking wallet for education? Here’s some good news: Orange County public schools will get about $47 million from the lottery for the past year. That’s up $9 million from last year. . . . Statewide, public schools will be getting roughly $620 million.
YUPPIE BUCKS: Better known for its vintages and catering, Rolf’s Wine, Spirits and Deli does something else well: It sells more lottery tickets than any place else in Orange County. . . . From an Irvine storefront, Rolf’s pulled in a cool $1,231,209 in ticket sales for the year ending last month. That’s an average of $23,000 a week. Ned Cisco, who owns Rolf’s with wife Sandra, says their secret is old-fashioned service: “The more you sell, the more you make, of course, and we have two Super Lotto machines . . . but everything in my store can be bought somewhere else, so I have to sell service.”
Lottery Action
Lottery ticket sales in Orange County totaled more than $450 million over the last three years. 1990-91: $180,903,793 1991-92: $119,585,549 1992-93: $153,542,522 Source: California Lottery
