3 Win New Lotto Game’s First Jackpot

Three Riverside County women claimed the winning ticket Monday in the California Lottery’s first “SuperLotto Plus” game, matching all six numbers for the $32-million jackpot.

The winners, Kathy Unger, Terri Moore and Michelle Coutlee, all of Lake Elsinore, agreed to take a lump sum payment of nearly $15.2 million instead of the full jackpot paid out over time, lottery officials said.

The women, who planned to divide the money on the basis of how much each paid for the tickets they purchased, said they are childhood friends who have played various lottery games together since 1986.

“Since I was a child, I had dreams that I would win a large sum of money,” Unger said. “Now this dream is a reality.”

The new game offers two fields of numbers: Players choose five numbers from 1 to 47, then one number--called a “Meganumber”--from 1 to 27.

California Lottery officials announced the winners after confirming their ticket matched the numbers drawn Saturday, 8, 13, 14, 23, 30 and the Meganumber 6.

SuperLotto Plus was designed to restore interest in California’s waning Lotto game, lottery officials said.

Sales have dipped to about $975 million annually this year, down from $1.1 billion five years ago.

The new game, which boasts bigger pots and a PowerBall-style format, is intended to generate the kind of frenzy that has gripped players in the East and Midwest, where huge multi-state games lure ticket buyers.