2001 2nd Quarter Press Releases: Article

SACRAMENTO -- California Lottery's "The Big Spin®" show airs Saturday, June 2, 2001, in twelve television markets statewide. Contestants on this week's show won a total of $102,000.

Alameda County resident Wayne Marcelin was awarded California Lottery's "Hero In Education" award. Marcelin spends countless hours volunteering with the literacy program and the after-school homework club at Kennedy Elementary School in Newark. He arrives in the morning to tutor small groups in literacy instruction and stays all day working with students in reading, writing, spelling and study skills. He then runs the homework club, working one-on-one with the students after school. For those students who are unable to receive his help during the school day, Marcelin opens his own home for tutoring. He's even made house calls to assist children.

Actor Ron Masak, who is best known for his role as Sheriff Mort Metzger in the hit TV series "Murder, She Wrote," presented Marcelin with the "Hero In Education" award for his outstanding contribution to education.

Eleanor Lauterwasser of Fremont won $30,000 spinning the largest prize wheel in the world on The Big Spin show. "I've always wanted to take a trip to Hawaii and now I can go," she said. Lauterwasser also plans to pay off bills and buy a new car with her prize money. Lauterwasser bought a "Big Spin" Scratchers® ticket which revealed three "SPIN" symbols on one ticket; that ticket entitled her to a direct trip to the prize wheel.

LaQuetta Bryant, an account clerk from Atwater, was this week's top California Gold winner. "I want to take my family on vacation to Australia and give part of my prize money to my daughter," she said. Bryant 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 "The Big Spin". 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" prize wheel, while the other contestant wins $5,000.

Carlsbad resident, Marilyn Tufillaro, has only played the Fantasy 5^TM game twice and made it to The Big Spin show where she won $20,000. "I want to pay off some bills, help out my friends and have some fun," said Tufillaro. 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.

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. "The Big Spin®" is the longest running Lottery game show in the country, airing continuously since 1985.