Patrons, Retailers Dream Big
This is why they call it Lotto fever.
It’s high noon Friday, 32 hours before the drawing for California’s record $183-million SuperLotto jackpot, and more than 70 luck-hungry souls are inching single file into the state’s winningest lottery retailer.
The line snakes past the refrigerated section at Allan’s Wine & Lotto in Port Hueneme, past the beef sticks and corn chips and jugs of pink wine, before spilling onto the sidewalk and moving dangerously close to the front door of the neighboring 99 Cent Store.
Cash in hand, would-be millionaires have come from all over Southern California, drawn by the legend of this little liquor store and its six SuperLotto jackpots.
“Just wait until you see the line tomorrow,” said Sue Ann Sanders, who along with her husband, Glenn, presided over one of the store’s two red-hot ticket dispensing machines. The couple, who have owned the store for 27 years, figure they will sell more than $100,000 in tickets before the numbers are drawn.
Coverage in recent days from Los Angeles-area television stations has only boosted the store’s reputation.
“We’re always busy, but it’s been crazy,” said Glenn Sanders, shelling out tickets like a blackjack dealer in a Las Vegas casino.
Retailers across the county reported long lines and brisk sales for today’s drawing, which will occur shortly before 8 p.m. But the buying frenzy began early, with lottery players pooling their money and taking extended lunch hours Friday to chase their big-money dreams.
And judging by the numbers, Ventura County is as good a place as any to do that.
Two of the top 10 luckiest retailers are in the county. Allan’s has had the most jackpots, while the 7-Eleven on East Channel Islands Boulevard is ninth on the list with three.
There, store owner Jessie Tiwana said he sold 14,000 tickets Thursday and was on pace to sell 30,000 Friday. He expected that his single machine would spit out more than 50,000 tickets by the time today’s drawing took place.
Buyers have come from as far as Long Beach, Tiwana said. Some touch the floor or clutch his arm for luck as the Lotto machine chatters and prints out numbers.
“It’s lucky for me, anyway,” said Tiwana, who cleared $175,000 when the store sold a winning ticket in March 2000. “I was able to pay off the store. If we hit one more time, I’m going to retire.”
When the payoff is this big, few people come to these Lotto hot spots in search of soft drinks and snacks. But Tiwana and other retailers get compensated in other ways.
They earn about 7 cents for each $1 ticket they sell. And they can earn 0.5%--in this case $915,000--for selling the winning ticket. Like those who play the game, some retailers figure it’s just a matter of time before good luck comes their way.
“I don’t have the long lines because I haven’t had a big winner--yet,” said Ronald Anthony, owner of Conejo Valley Liquor in Newbury Park. “But maybe it’s our turn next.”
It’s that kind of optimism that keeps the lines long at Allan’s Wine & Lotto. The front wall is plastered with photos of the six jackpot winners who bought tickets at the store plus a seventh man who won $1 million in the lottery’s Big Spin game.
After trekking 50 miles from her Brentwood home to Port Hueneme, Wendy Kohlhoff could use the money. Someone had backed into her car at an Oxnard intersection just as she was rubbing her good luck charms, which include a miniature Buddha.
All that aggravation just to buy seven tickets. But she figures if she hits it big, she can simply replace her now-dented Mazda with a chrome-colored, four-wheel-drive Mercedes-Benz.
“I didn’t even stand in line this long for Rod Stewart,” said Kohlhoff, a waitress at the Buggy Whip restaurant in Westchester who plans to give two nights’ notice if she wins. “All it takes is one [winning ticket].”
That said, customers were buying tickets by the bunches Friday, trying to get the upper hand on SuperLotto’s 1-in-41-million odds. The Sanders said one man bought $850 worth of tickets Friday, and he wasn’t even part of an office pool.
“Wait until [Saturday night] around 6 o’clock, that’s when it will be busiest,” Sue Ann Sanders said. “That is when everyone thinks they are going to get the luckiest tickets.”
