SACRAMENTO – How many golfing trips and lessons can a $1 million buy?
An alfalfa farmer from Nevada might soon be able to find out. Robert Cooper matched five of six numbers from the MEGA Millions draw on March 3, and his ticket is worth $1,029,057. Cooper says his wife “couldn’t have been happier” when she learned of the win. “When I told her I’d won she almost fainted. Then she cried right there.”
Cooper plans to use the money to help his 10-year-old son realize his ambitious golf dreams. “He wants to go to Stanford, play on the PGA and be like Tiger,” said Cooper.
The ticket was purchased at the Walker General Store, which is located at 106651 Highway 395 in Coleville, near the Nevada border. The store is 65 miles away from the Coopers’ hometown of Yerington, and they say it is the closest place to buy California Lottery tickets.
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.