2001 2nd Quarter Press Releases: Article

SACRAMENTO -- California Lottery's "Big Spin® 2000" show airs Saturday, April 21, 2001, in twelve television markets statewide. Contestants on this week's show won a combined total of $367,500.

"I want to pay off the mortgage to my house and give some money to my son," said Camelot's Riches contestant Mei Chung Wang. Wang, an accountant from San Bernardino, won $25,000 on her first round of play, $75,000 on her second round but added no more in the third round giving her a grand total of $100,000. Camelot's Riches is the California Lottery's newest way to get to the Big Spin 2000 Show. The game is played by pulling on King Arthur's sword, "Excalibur," which starts a set of two different colored balls racing down the ramps to the finish line. The contestant's prize is decided by which color ball crosses the finish line first. Three rounds are played and the final prize is totaled after the three rounds have ended.

Los Banos resident, Freddie Patterson won $95,000 playing the Fantasy 5^TM Dream Machine in September of 2000. He came back to the show again, this time winning $80,000 on the Dream Machine. "I want to do a little something for Freddie this time," he said. Patterson used the prize money he won in September to pay off some bills and then gave the rest to his wife and children. "This time I'm going to go fishing in Alaska with my prize money," he said.

Fantasy 5^TM winner Hasan Daabas of San Diego said, "I want to buy a house for my family." Daabas, a Cal Trans employee, won $75,000 on the Dream Machine. At the Fantasy 5 Dream Machine, players have up to five chances to launch one ball at a time into one of the five bins in the pinball-type game, each bin representing a cash amount. Prizes are cumulative, but only one ball may land in each bin to claim the prize amount. Players appearing on this segment qualify by mailing an entry form to the Lottery when $5 of Fantasy 5 games are purchased on one playslip.

Mother of eight, Julian Ramirez of Bakersfield, was this week's Spin-Spin-Spin winner. "I want to take a little vacation," she said after winning $60,000 on the largest prize wheel in the world. Ramirez bought a "Big Spin 2000" Scratchers® ticket which revealed three "SPIN" symbols on one ticket, that ticket entitled her to a direct trip to the prize wheel.

Janet Lopez, a bank service manager, was this week's top California Gold winner. Lopez, a resident of Valencia, said "I want to go on a vacation to Hawaii." Lopez won $30,000 while other California Gold contestants won a combined total of $22,500. California Gold is another way to get to the wheel on "Big Spin 2000". The game starts with 10 contestants whose Big Spin Scratchers® tickets each revealed three "TV SHOW" symbols on one ticket. When instructed, each player pushes down a "detonator" to reveal a prize ranging from $1,750 to $4,000. Two of those contestants will reveal gold nuggets and advance to the second round of play. Once there, they compete to see who can get the closest to 10 units of "gold nuggets" in their mining car without going over. The winner of this round goes to the "Big Spin 2000" prize wheel, while the other contestant wins $5,000.

The California Lottery sells its products through a network of more than 18,000 outlets statewide. The Lottery provides 52.7 percent of its revenues to players as prizes, 34.1 percent to public schools and 13.2 percent for administrative expenses, which includes 6.9 percent for retailer commissions. Since 1985, the Lottery has raised more than $12 billion for public schools. The California Lottery's contribution equals approximately 2 percent of the state's total education budget. "Big Spin® 2000" is the longest running Lottery game show in the country, airing continuously since 1985.