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The first 2007 winner of California Lottery's
Super LOTTO Plus jackpot has been named as Jimmy
Balloue from Laguna Hills. Mr Balloue, who is
an assistant construction manager, won $41 million
on the draw for Saturday 6 January, and in doing
so got his new year off to the kind of start
he found hard to believe.
He discovered his good fortune when he visited
his local lottery retailer to check his ticket.
"When I scanned my ticket and the Check-a-Ticket
told me I was a winner I couldn't believe it!"
Mr Balloue said. "I had to have the clerk
double-check the numbers. I got so excited I
didn't think I could even drive home. The clerk
called my wife to come pick me up and she almost
hung up the phone on him. She was so mad; she
thought it was a prank!"
The Super LOTTO Plus game give players nine
ways to win a prize. To win the jackpot, which
always starts at $7 million, players need to
match 5 main numbers from 47 and 1 "Mega"
number from 27. The odds of doing this are 1
in 41,416,353. Numbers can be selected manually
or at random by opting for an automatic QuickPick
selection. Tickets cost $1 each and the draw
takes place every Wednesday and Saturday evening.
With nine prize levels, the overall odds of
winning any price are 1 in 23.
Mr Balloue plays both Super LOTTO Plus and
MegaMillions every week, but unlike many players
he doesn't always buy his tickets from the same
place. "I alternate the stores where I
buy my tickets and this time I chose Dimension
Liquor," he explained after his win. "The
store just felt lucky. Every time I buy my tickets
there the folks behind the counter knew the
names of their customers and just seemed like
nice people." The Dimension Liquor store
receive a bonus for selling the winning ticket
which is worth 0.05% of the ticket value - in
this case $205,000.
Mr Balloue opted to take a cash lump sum, which
gives him around $20.5 million. And what will
the first Super LOTTO Plus winner of 2007 do
with his fortune? "I'm going to take care
of my close family and buy them homes so they
don't have to worry about that ever again,"
Mr Balloue said. "My wife and I are going
to travel and finally take a honeymoon. We're
thinking Tahiti!"
9 January, 2007
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