SACRAMENTO – California State Lottery officials announced today that the SuperLOTTO Plus® jackpot has rolled to $98 million for Saturday’s night draw, guaranteeing the nation’s largest lottery prize to individuals with the winning numbers.
Think that big Lottery prizes can’t be won? Don’t tell that to Kim Szabo, who split a $100 million jackpot in August 2004. The money used to buy the ticket Szabo said, was the "last $2 of change in my purse.” She spent her nickels, dimes and quarters to buy two Quick Picks. Those coins paid off in a $33 million windfall.
Narinder Badwal and Robyn Newton are believers too. The married 7-Eleven owner and the aspiring actress split a $99 million LOTTO jackpot in 2003. Badwal, who bought the winning ticket from his own store, at first didn’t even bother to check the numbers because he thought he’d already used up all his luck. Just the week before he’d received a $250,000 commission for selling one of his customers a winning LOTTO ticket. The two tickets claimed by Badwal and Newton were worth $49.5 million each.
Average Californians can and do win the guaranteed jackpots offered by the California Lottery. Remember, you can’t win if you don’t play. Pass up this opportunity to buy a SuperLOTTO Plus ticket and someone else could be California’s newest multi-millionaire. It might as well be you walking away $98 million richer.
The Lottery also guarantees money from each jackpot will benefit education and retailers. Education sees 34 cents of every ticket sold and with a jackpot of this size means that approximately $58 million will be going to our schools. Also, the retailer who sells a single winning $98 million ticket will receive a $490,000 bonus for selling the winning ticket. This year, the California Lottery contributed over $1.2 billion to public education and has provided more than $1 billion annually to California schools for the last six years.
SuperLOTTO Plus can be played at approximately 18,500 retail businesses around California. The SuperLOTTO Plus draw takes place each Wednesday and Saturday night at 7:58 p.m. Players may purchase tickets until 7:45 p.m. on the night of the draw.