2 From Anaheim Each Win $1-Million Prize From New Big Spin Wheel

SACRAMENTO — Two Anaheim residents struck it rich Saturday spinning the state lottery’s new wheel, each winning an annuity worth $1 million.

Garry Brotherton, the vice president of a trucking company, and Cori Turner, a homemaker whose husband recently lost his job, will each receive $40,000 annually after taxes for 20 years.

The wins came during the first week that lottery officials have used a new Big Spin wheel, which holds twice as many $1-million slots and more mid-range prizes than the former wheel.

“A million bucks!” screamed Turner, 24, who was wearing a Lotto shirt signed by her friends and family for good luck. “I can’t believe it!”

Turner said her husband, Jim, just lost his job with a tire company in Southern California, and that she kept imagining “the little ball plopping into the ($1-million) slot.”

“Who’d have thought that a can of Pepsi would have won us $1 million?” she said, recalling the reason she left her home one night at 11:30 to buy the soft drink at a nearby video store. She also bought the lottery ticket that brought her to the Big Spin.

Brotherton, 39, and his wife, Pamela, were calm about their fortune. “This means I have to buy the doughnuts when I go to work Monday,” Brotherton joked.

Pamela Brotherton said that when her husband bought his ticket, she and their daughter were traveling in Europe. She said he called on April Fool’s Day to tell them that the ticket had won him a chance at the Big Spin, and they didn’t believe him.

Brotherton said he planned to continue working, and that they would share the money with their parents and make some home improvements.

Other Big Spin winners included William McChesney of Sacramento, $50,000; Michael Shull of San Diego, $30,000; Angela Stuart of San Francisco, $20,000, and Jerome Weakland of Dublin, who won $20,000 by doubling a $10,000 prize.

Lottery officials said the new Big Spin wheel no longer contains a progressive jackpot. The highest amount spinners can win on the wheel is $2 million by doubling a $1 million prize.

The new wheel has 10 $10,000 slots, 16 $20,000 slots, 16 $30,000 slots, 16 $40,000 slots, 16 $50,000 slots, 10 $100,000 slots, eight doubles slots and eight $1-million slots.

The letters chosen for the new Wild Card game that started Saturday are R, X and W. Ticket-holders with those letters are eligible for $500 prizes and a chance to appear on the Big Spin.