Big jackpots can be a lot of work

Tampa columnist HOOPER E-mail: Click here Archive

© St. Petersburg Times
published September 6, 2002

It's four times more than what Denzel Washington gets to make a movie.

It's twice as large as the Devil Rays' player payroll.

It's the fifth-largest Florida Lotto jackpot in history, and it is the fabric of dreams. When the Lotto billboards say $3-million or $4-million, you sniff. But when the billboard says Saturday's drawing is an estimated $85-million, you sigh.

Unless, of course, you work in a convenience store. Then maybe hold your breath.

The sign on the front of the 7-Eleven on Davis Islands says it all: Lotto lines will be long, please purchase tickets early.

"It was crazy yesterday," said Isaac Belk about the sale of Lotto tickets for Wednesday's $66-million drawing.

"We could have used an extra machine," Jason Lindeke chimed in.

The two were working through a quiet afternoon Thursday. Lindeke sold a Slurpee to a 6-year-old. Belk straighten out a shelf.

It was the quiet before the storm.

"It'll be constantly busy," Lindeke said. "We'll pretty much have two registers going full time. Some of the time, we'll have three."

Lindeke has seen a single customer purchase $250 in tickets. Himself, he only spends a dollar or two on the Lotto.

What would Lindeke do if he won?

"Give my two weeks' notice."

The Value Market at Florida Avenue and 122nd Street has something of a reputation as a good luck store.

Cesar Estevez has owned the market for just five months, but he has the signs to show what's been happening the last couple of years: two Play 4 winners, two Fantasy 5 winners, a Lotto winner in May 2001 and a person who hit five out of six to win $5,780 just a couple of months ago.

"The guy from the lottery office visits about 150 stores a week, and he says he hasn't seen a store like this," Estevez said.

LeRoy Jackson bought a few Lotto tickets there Thursday, but he doesn't have Lotto fever and he doesn't have any grand plans if he wins, other than living "a clean life, a Godly life."

A yacht, maybe?

"I didn't come up in that lifestyle, so what would I know about a yacht," Jackson said. "I think I would just want to be comfortable."

At the Kwik Mart on Powhattan and Nebraska, Vinesh Patel said he would have two extra employees behind the counter Saturday. But Patel wasn't complaining. The Lotto will bring extra customers, and all the employees are family members, so he doesn't have to pay more.

So what would Patel do if he won?

"I don't play," said Patel, a Hindu. "It's against my religion."

For years, I have told myself if I won I would try to remain anonymous. You know, just keep working at the paper and never let on that I was fabulously wealthy.

Yeah, I would always pick up the tab at Four Green Fields and probably pay for lunch, too. I might drive a Jaguar on weekends, and I would have to get a house with a Hoop-room: giant high definition television, stereo, PlayStation 2 and that old couch that's still sitting in the garage.

But couldn't you see me walking up to the podium in Tallahassee with a bag over my head: the unknown Lotto winner.

Alas, a lottery official explained they have to release the name and city of every winner to protect the lottery's integrity. But a friend said for a nominal fee of $5-million, he would be glad to accept the prize for me.

Sure he would.

That's all I'm saying.

-- Ernest Hooper can be reached at 226-3406 or Hooper@sptimes.com.

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