A Win-Win Situation for Man in Lotto, Fantasy 5

There’s no use telling Angelo Gallina how long the odds are of winning the California Lottery. He beat those odds twice in the same day, winning the $17-million SuperLotto Plus jackpot and the $126,000 Fantasy 5 top prize.

Gallina won in the draws conducted Nov. 20, an astounding feat considering the chances of taking home the top prize in each -- let alone both.

What will he do first, now that he’s beaten the odds?

“I think I’ll eat cake,” Gallina told lottery officials. He said a new car and a home for his grown children are also in store.

State lottery officials put the odds for the SuperLotto contest win at 1 in 41 million. The odds of winning the separate Fantasy 5 contest is 1 in 575,000.

The odds of one person winning both draws on the same day requires a calculator and lots of zeros.

“One in 23 trillion,” said Mike Orkin, a professor of statistics at Cal State Hayward and author of “What Are the Odds?” -- a book about games of chance and the odds of everyday occurrences.

To reach that figure Orkin multiplied 41 million by 575,000, resulting in 23,575,000,000,000. He said a more accurate reflection of the odds for this particular win would vary depending on how many tickets the couple bought and how often they played the lottery.

But are the odds of this occurrence almost astronomical?

“You can take off the ‘almost,’ ” Orkin said.