SACRAMENTO – The California State Lottery announced that the $22 million SuperLOTTO Plus jackpot winner from November 18, 2006 has come forward.
Dagoberto Solano, a truck driver from Glendale, came in and claimed the jackpot on November 22nd with his family and was shocked, to say the least. “I’m shaking,” Solano explained. “If I had known I was a winner, I would have taken the past 2 days off of work.” Solano buys a ticket every week and his biggest win was $10 up until now. And what does he plan to do with his prize? “I want to buy houses for all my children and buy my wife whatever she wants. There may be nothing leftover after that,” said Solano.
“This is a wonderful story just in time for the holidays,” said Acting Director Joan Borucki. “This winner is a hard-working man whose priority has always been his family, and now he can really spoil them this Christmas. We couldn’t be happier for him and his family!”
Solano chose the cash option and will receive roughly half of the announced jackpot, approximately $11 million, before taxes. Solano is not the only one who wins, the retailer who sold the winning ticket, Chakmian Shell in Los Angeles, will also receive $110,000 as a bonus.
Public education receives at least 34 cents of every dollar players spend on Lottery products. The California Lottery contributed a record $1.28 billion to public education in 2005-06 out of historic sales of $3.58 billion, the sixth year in a row the Lottery has provided more than $1 billion in supplemental funding for education. Since its inception in 1985, the Lottery has contributed more than $18 billion to California schools.