4th Time a Charm for Lotto Winner: $23.4-Million Pot

SAN JOSE —  A 41-year-old San Jose electronics technician, who had played the lottery only three times before, picked all six numbers Wednesday and won the $23.4-million grand prize--the third-largest jackpot in California Lottery history.

Ron Bouvia, 41, will receive the first of 20 annual payments of $952,800 ($1,191,000 before taxes) within a week, lottery officials said Thursday.

“It’s like a fog,” said Bouvia, who works for a Hewlett Packard quality control unit in nearby Cupertino. “It’s like a dream.”

Bouvia said he picked the six numbers--20, 41, 14, 10, 15 and 34--by using “parts of my house number, my age and random selections.”

Bouvia used five of the same numbers on four other tickets he had bought at the Wine Rack liquor store in San Jose on Wednesday night--just 43 minutes before the deadline--for an additional $18,200 in winnings.

When asked at a news conference Thursday if he considered himself a lucky person, Bouvia responded in a cool, calm voice: “No, I’m not a gambler. I’ve never won anything ever before.”

Bouvia, who is single and drives a 1986 Honda Accord, seemed to take his good fortune in stride. He went to work as usual Thursday morning, told his boss that he had become an overnight millionaire and made plans to take some time off. He said he wants to return to his job and maybe buy a bigger house. Other than that, he said, he has no immediate plans.

He will celebrate by “throwing a dinner party,” Bouvia said. “I’m not a big partyer,” he told a gathering of reporters in the Gold Room of the New Fairmont Hotel in downtown San Jose.

Bouvia purchased the winning ticket after work Wednesday at 7:02 p.m. The deadline for the drawing was 7:45 p.m.

He said he went home, heard the numbers announced, wrote them down and called a friend to double check. All the while he remained calm, he said.

“I’m very meticulous about writing numbers in the first place, so I was sure that I had them right,” he said.

Hard-Luck Stories

Bouvia, whose mother lives in San Jose, is not worried about friends and strangers overwhelming him with hard-luck stories. “I have never reacted to people coming to me for money. When I want something, I go to them.”

Jim Daneshrad, the store owner who sold the winning ticket to Bouvia, attended the news conference. Daneshrad, who will receive $119,000 for his role, said: “I think he deserves it. I can describe him as one of my best customers.”

In addition to Bouvia, three players picked five numbers plus the bonus number to win $720,165 each. Two of those tickets were bought at the same store, New Lun Wah Co., in San Francisco’s Chinatown. The tickets were bought within four-tenths of a second of each other. The third ticket was from a convenience store in Escondido.