2009 3rd Quarter Press Releases: Article

SACRAMENTO - "Make Me a Millionaire," the California Lottery’s TV game show, awarded 12 lucky contestants a total of $182,000 in cash and prizes on this week’s show.

This week’s show is highlighted by a Lucky Penny clean sweep. All three contestants – Andres Tapia of Salinas, Darlene Wright of Vallejo, and Kell May of Marysville – concluded the game with a new ride to take home, and had a great time winning. Said Tapia: “I’d like to come back and do it all again.”

In addition to the car winners, Patricia Souza from Mount Aukum played the Millionaire game and took home $30,000. “I had a blast,” she said. Souza plans to use her winnings to help out her family members – she has seven grandchildren with the eighth on the way.

With the progressive jackpot increasing $200,000 each week, next week’s Millionaire game contestant will have a chance to win $1.6 million.

This week’s winners:

The California Lottery believes in creating a better, more sustainable environment for future generations, which is why all cars given away on “Make Me a Millionaire” are fuel efficient and use clean innovative technologies. All new car winners on this week’s episode won a Chevy Malibu.

For more information about “Make Me a Millionaire,” visit www.calottery.com. For high resolution photos, please contact (916) 324-9639 or e-mail newsroom@calottery.com.

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, Lottery players have contributed more than $21 billion to California schools out of total sales of nearly $56 billion. Retailers benefit too, earning $3.6 billion in compensation since 1985.