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Vacationing Lotto Winner Claims $12.6-Million Prize

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

Nearly a month after striking it rich, 65-year-old Buena Park resident Joan Markham has claimed her $12.6-million Super Lotto jackpot.

“We’re extremely pleased that the winner has come forward,” said State Lottery spokesman Bob Taylor.

Eyebrows were raised early last month when the much-publicized award went unclaimed.

“Everybody’s been really concerned,” said Erik Walters, a clerk at Bay Crest Spirits and Wine Shop on 17th Street in Costa Mesa, where Markham purchased 10 computerized Quick Pick tickets at $1 apiece the afternoon of Aug. 2.

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“It’s gotten to the point where you can read people’s minds before they ask you,” Walters said. “Everyone who’s come in has asked about it; we kept wondering why someone wouldn’t have come forward.”

As it happens, Taylor said, Markham--who is retired--was on vacation. Late Thursday afternoon, however, she returned and reported to the Super Lotto’s district office in Santa Ana to claim her prize.

The new multimillionaire could not be reached for comment Thursday and, according to Taylor, had expressed an adamant desire not to speak to the press. “She’s very, very spooked by this,” he said. “This is a lot of notoriety to achieve suddenly upon returning from vacation.”

The mood at Bay Crest Spirits and Wine Shop, on the other hand, was almost buoyant.

“I think it’s great,” said Joe Spadafore, owner of the 40-year-old liquor store since 1990. “I hope it affects her life in a super positive manner; it’s kind of nice that the money didn’t get lost in space.”

The place has sold two other winning tickets, Spadafore said; one worth $3 million in 1989, and another worth $6 million in 1990. That year, he said, the store placed among the top 50 retailers in the state for selling lottery tickets, although its sales so far this year have not placed it among the top 100.

That doesn’t bother Spadafore, whose business grossed $300,000 in lottery ticket sales last year. Each retailer receives 6% of the price of each ticket sold. On winning tickets, Taylor said, they take one-half of 1% of the total amount won which, in the recent case, amounts to $63,000.

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“The money’s going into a mutual fund for my kids’ college educations,” Spadafore said.

According to Taylor, Markham’s gross earnings will amount to an annuity of $631,000 a year for 20 years, or $454,320 after taxes. The next Lotto jackpot, he said, will be at least $30 million.

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