HOLLYWOOD BEACH : Lottery Winner Has Plans for Millions

David W. Bankert, who won $5.32 million from California’s Super Lotto last week, is one lottery winner who does not intend to quit his job or fritter away his jackpot on lavish trips and flashy cars.

Instead, the 53-year-old Hollywood Beach resident plans to invest in real estate, help his two sons with college tuition and purchase a home by the beach. He has already hired a financial adviser and changed his phone number.

Bankert, a mortgage banker, was one of three people who won the jackpot. The other two winners were from Sacramento and Vallejo. All three will receive a check for $266,000 within six weeks and each year for the next 19 years.

Dressed in a gray business suit and a polka dot tie, Bankert claimed his prize Monday at the California Lottery’s Ventura office.

“I’ve been pretty sedate, really,” he said. “I probably don’t totally comprehend it.”

Bankert said he has played the same numbers--13, 18, 23, 28, 33 and 48--twice weekly for the past five years. The numbers represent Bankert’s age and the ages at the time he started playing of four people he loves.

He purchased his winning ticket at Allan’s Wines and Lotto in Port Hueneme, which averages the tenth highest sales volume for lottery tickets in the state. He discovered he had the winning numbers--a feat with odds of 18 million to one--while drinking coffee and reading a newspaper Thursday morning.

“The first thing I did, I put my jacket on and went to the liquor store,” to confirm that the paper hadn’t misprinted the winning combination.

Bankert’s was the eighth largest prize collected by a Ventura County resident since the lottery began in 1986. The largest prize went to Lydia Neufeld of Simi Valley who won $17,140,000 in February, 1990.