SACRAMENTO – A group of 15 players from El Camino Hospital in Mountain View won $158,951 in last week’s MEGA Millions draw. They matched five of six numbers, missing only the Mega number.
Michael Dunn, the group’s captain, says that the group has been playing draw games for years. He says he can tell when the group is eager to play – he comes to work to “find $2 taped to my locker.”
Michael learned of the win by checking the Lottery’s Web site on the night of the draw. He told a fellow player who had called him about an unrelated issue, and news of the win spread like wildfire around the hospital from there.
Members from the lucky group have plans to buy new televisions, new laptops, and, of course, Christmas presents. One player said that he would not be telling his wife about the money, but that plan will not go too far – she does the taxes.
The MEGA Millions ticket was purchased at Ernie’s Liquors in Palo Alto. The retailer is located at 3870 El Camino Real. The winning numbers were 21, 27, 46, 52, 55, and the Mega number was 14.
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 nearly $21 billion to California schools out of total sales of more than $56 billion. Retailers benefit too, earning $3.6 billion in compensation since 1985.