SACRAMENTO – This week on The Big Spin show, four contestants won a total of $545,000. The show aired statewide Saturday, March 1, 2008. The grand total won this week was $567,500!
This week’s first contestant was Niki Khensouvann, a convenient store worker from Long Beach and regular viewer of The Big Spin. Stepping up to the Fantasy 5 Dream Machine she won $65,000. She plans to pay for her children’s college education and buy a Louis Vuitton purse for herself. Next up was Danny Smith, a maintenance worker from Long Beach, who won $75,000. He plans to use his prize money to go to business school. Smith has always wanted to attend Pepperdine University. Now he can! The last Fantasy 5 Dream Machine contestant was Harry Gatz, a maintenance supervisor from 
Paramount. He won $105,000 and plans to use it as a down payment on a new home.
Finally, Ayesha Ogle, a registered nurse from Palmdale, outplayed nine other contestants in Aces High. Once she made it to the wheel, the ball landed on the “TRIPLE” spoke giving her the opportunity to triple her prize. On the next spin the ball landed on “$100,000,” giving Ogle a $300,000 prize. She was shocked, “I’m saving it for my children’s education, but I really want to take a trip to Malawi, Africa to visit a family that I have been helping. I want my children to see real poverty and I plan to start an organization that will assist less fortunate families in Malawi.” Immediately after her win and still during the show, she called her mother in Africa to give her the good news.
| Ayesha Ogle |
Palmdale |
$300,000 |
| Harry Gatz |
Paramount |
$105,000 |
| Danny Smith |
Long Beach |
$75,000 |
| Niki Khensouvann |
Long Beach |
$65,000 |
| Olga Dorado-Landrum |
Rohnert Park |
$5,000 |
| Greg Leaser |
Berkeley |
$4,000 |
| Benjamin Pruneda, Jr. |
Shafter |
$2,500 |
| Margaret Abadzhyan |
Glendale |
$2,000 |
| Bruce Reiley |
West Los Angeles |
$2,000 |
| Maribel Alvarez |
Calistoga |
$1,750 |
| Eduardo Gonzalez |
Winchester |
$1,750 |
| John Machamer |
Foothill Ranch |
$1,750 |
| Robert Hu |
Belmont |
$1,750 |
| |
TOTAL |
$567,500 |
For high resolution copies of photos of Niki Khensouvann, Danny Smith, Harry Gatz and Ayesha Ogle please contact (916) 324-9639 or e-mail newsroom@calottery.com.
More than 95 cents of every Lottery dollar is returned to the community in the form of contributions to education, prizes and retail commissions. The California Lottery contributes at least 34 cents of every dollar that players spend on Lottery products to public education and returns more than 50 percent of sales to players in the form of prizes. Since its inception in 1985, the Lottery has contributed more than $20 billion to California schools out of total sales of more than $55 billion. Retailers benefit too, earning $3.5 billion in compensation since 1985.