Features

LOS ANGELES — Californians looked for ways to boost their luck Friday as the jackpot for Saturday night’s SuperLotto Plus draw rose to $175 million. 

“Play Here” screamed lottery banners at a Chevron station in Los Angeles’ Chinatown, where the lottery craze was mixing with Chinese New Year traditions. 

“The last few days has been crazy,” said manager Joe Shiber, 48, who was seeing many first-time Lotto ticket buyers. 

Customers usually spend $1 to $5 on lottery tickets, he said, but that increased to up to $50 after Wednesday, when no one won the midweek draw and the jackpot rolled over again. 

“Now with the Chinese New Year, my Chinese customers have been spending a lot more. They tell me they’re using ’good-luck’ money,” Shiber said. 

A single jackpot winner who chose the option of 26 annual installments would receive payments starting at about $4.37 million and rising to about $8.92 million, before withholding of 27 percent federal withholding tax. The estimated cash option would be $87.5 million, or $63 million after federal taxes. 

The $175 million jackpot is a record for California. The previous mark was $141 million on June 23, 2001. 

At George’s Liquor, a Chinatown store that has sold two winning lottery tickets in the past, the line of customers went out the door and down the sidewalk. 

Stan Ng, 33, a recreational assistant, said he stood in line for 10 minutes to buy 10 SuperLotto tickets. 

“I seldomly play the Lotto, but since this is a big jackpot and it’s Chinese New Year, I’m trying my luck,” Ng said. 

Ng said he wasn’t really spending his own money because he was using “good-luck” money he’s received from relatives. He said he was also picking numbers himself, especially those with the lucky number eight. 

“I don’t believe I will win, because of the odds, but I needed to spend my good-luck money,” he said. 

Frank Benin, 37, went out of his way to buy tickets at George’s. 

“A gambler in my office told me to come here. This is a big jackpot and I felt I needed to come to a lucky place to get my tickets,” he said. 

Benin said that if he won he would build a community center in south Los Angeles and help underprivileged children. 

“It’s all for fun. You play the Lotto to see where it will take you,” he said.