Seller of Lotto Ticket to Get $435,000 Windfall

Jennifer Lam of Westminster didn’t buy any lottery tickets this week but she won $435,000 anyway.

And all day Thursday the wistful and the hopeful filed through her store, Kelly’s Mini Mart in Anaheim, to offer congratulations and check their own tickets against the Super Lotto printout.

Wednesday’s jackpot of $87 million went to one ticket holder among the 513 people who bought nearly 2,500 tickets at Lam’s store during the run-up to Wednesday night’s drawing.

Lam’s take for owning the shop that sold the winner: $435,000, or one-half of 1%. Because the winner, who hadn’t come forward by late Thursday, opted for a lump sum instead of 26 annual payments, the payout will be $43.5 million, lottery officials said.

“I’m numb,” Lam, 38, said as reporters, customers and the curious floated through the store. “I’m happy for my customer who won.”

And happy for herself. Lam’s husband, Johnathon Phan, opened the store about 8:30 a.m., and an hour later answered a call from lottery officials informing him that the store had sold the one and only winning ticket. He called Lam at home.

“He was screaming,” Lam said. “My first reaction was that somebody had broken into the store.”

By afternoon, Lam was looking a little worn, having repeated her story for the umpteenth time to the umpteenth reporter while helping customers. She’s from Vietnam, she repeated, and moved here 20 years ago. She owns the business, bought it a year ago and it’s in her name but the whole family helps run it. She’ll use some of the money to help relatives in Vietnam, and use some for herself and her husband. No, no real plans yet.