Out-of-the-Way Stop Is a Lucky One for Lotto Winner

Adia Vasquez could have stopped at any of four Lotto outlets near her South Bay home recently when she went out and bought 26 lottery tickets for herself and 20 co-workers for Saturday’s drawing.

Instead, the 37-year-old data processor drove five minutes out of her way to the only place she ever buys Lotto tickets: Bluebird Liquor Store in Hawthorne, Southern California’s impromptu Lotto shrine where three multimillion-dollar tickets had been sold in the last 10 years.

Thanks to her allegiance, Vasquez is now one of the proud owners of the fourth.

She and her group hit six of six numbers on a quick-pick ticket Saturday and are now poised to divide $15.6 million. Theirs was one of three winning tickets issued statewide in the $47-million drawing.

“I made 21 people very very happy,” Vasquez said as she sat down in a conference room Monday afternoon with her fellow winners to register for their prize: roughly $24,000 each a year, after taxes, for 20 years.

“I really want to sit down and stare at it until I believe that I really have it before I actually plan what I am going to do with it,” she said.

State lottery agent Al Romero said the first checks could be issued within two weeks once the winning ticket is confirmed and processed.

Vasquez and her group--all data processors at a Redondo Beach business that operates coin-activated laundry machines--have been pooling their dollars for big Lotto drawings for the past two years. Selective gamblers, the group only plays when the state-run Lotto jackpot reaches $7 million or more.

Saturday’s pot was more than six times that figure when Vasquez set out for the Bluebird Liquor Store on Thursday.

“Because of the winning numbers, I refuse to go anywhere else,” she said.

Before Saturday, the store had sold three winning tickets totaling more than $33 million and scores of other tickets that have paid out varying amounts less than $1 million. The store has become something of a shrine of legalized gambling, with players coming from all over Southern California to try to cash in on its winning record. The establishment sold $3.7 million in lottery tickets in fiscal 1994-95, making it the state’s second-biggest retailer.

“I guess I was just born lucky,” said owner Frank Kumamoto said when asked about his store’s good fortune.

Kumamoto’s Lotto luck, however, appears to run out with himself. In 10 years of playing, he has won only an occasional $5 prize. Still, he counts his blessings.

“I’ve got a wife of 31 years and two healthy children. What more do I need? I’m just pure luck.”