‘Lucky Spin’: Billion-dollar jackpot brings hopefuls to this unique Sacramento gas station
For the second time in two weeks, a multistate lottery has topped a billion dollars ahead of Tuesday night’s drawing for Mega Millions.
“Just a few weeks ago, we didn’t have this,” said Carolyn Becker, a California Lottery spokeswoman. She pointed at a neon $1 billion jackpot sign outside Spinners Cinnamon Rolls at the 76 gas station on Sutterville Road in the Land Park section of Sacramento. “It used to get stuck at 9-9-9.”
The Mega Millions jackpot prize of $1.1 billion brought regulars and strangers alike to Spinners on Tuesday to try their luck.
At the gas station, even if customers don’t walk away with a winning ticket, for an extra $5.50 they can purchase a pretty good consolation prize: a steaming hot, critically-acclaimed cinnamon roll.
How the ‘Lucky Spin’ came about
Larry and Sandy Taing have owned the gas station since 1993. Sandy’s brother and sister help out behind the register, doling out lotto tickets, and behind the bakery counter, rolling and slicing the softball-sized spiced buns.
‘It’s a lucky spin,’ Larry said.
The name is a coincidence. The couple bought Spinners Bakery, which used to be located at a mall, in 1987. Seven years ago, they fused the businesses together, moving the bakery inside the gas station.
Many of the regulars milling in and out on Tuesday went for staples such as the ham-and-cheese croissant and added a Mega Millions ticket for extra fun.
Although Spinners has never sold a jackpot-winning ticket, signs taped above drink refrigerators commemorate some of its smaller prizes, including a 2021 ticket that earned a patron $333,715.
The Mega Millions lottery has been rolled 29 times with no winner, ballooning to the sixth-largest prize in U.S. history and the fourth-largest Mega Millions pot ever. The winnings would buy 206,250,000 cinnamon rolls.
This big prize renewed lottery fever from two weeks after Californians lined up for the Powerball jackpot, which was won by a single ticket in Los Angeles. The winner for that $1 billion ticket has yet to come forward.
If no one wins from tonight’s 8 o’clock drawing, it will roll for the 30th time. The odds of buying a ticket with all five winning lottery numbers and the Mega number is slim — one in 302.6 million.
Lottery tickets raise funds for schools
“Over the last few years, we’ve seen (billion-dollar jackpots) happen more and more often, which is really exciting. It’s good for sales, and when sales are up we’re able to raise more money for California public schools, which is the whole reason we exist,” Becker said Tuesday morning outside the gas station.
For every $2 Mega Millions ticket sold, 80 cents goes toward California public schools. As of Tuesday morning, this Mega Millions lottery sequence had raised more than $77 million. The number, which has been growing since April, will continue growing to the cutoff to buy a ticket at 7:45 p.m.
This story was originally published August 1, 2023 at 1:46 PM.