$1 million lottery winner who hoped to ‘get off the streets' officially identified
The winner, Armando Vidal, said he bought two $10 Triple Red 777 Scratchers in April at Sandy's Deli & Liquor, where he is a regular customer.
At first, Vidal believed he had just won $200. When he returned to the store to verify the tickets, the scan suggested he might have won $100,000 — until the store's manager, Wilson Samaan, took a closer look at the printout.
'What are you going to do with a million dollars?' Samaan asked him, according to Vidal.
'I was like, huh?' Vidal said. 'And that's how I found out I'd won a million dollars.'
Vidal became homeless in 2008 after an injury left him unable to work. He spent years living on the streets in Santa Maria and San Luis Obispo. He told lottery officials that the win marks a dramatic turning point for him.
He plans to use the money to secure stable housing – ideally with a bed and room for a couple of dogs – and hopes to invest the rest to ensure long-term financial security.
The odds of winning a $1 million prize on a Triple Red 777 scratcher are 1 in 2,047,423, according to the California Lottery.
Samaan, who built a rapport with Vidal over the years, personally drove him to the Lottery office in Fresno to help him claim the prize securely.
'He tried to mail it,' Samaan told the Chronicle in April. 'I told him, I'll help you out. I offered him a bus ticket or for me to drive him. I didn't want a million dollars to get lost in the mail.'
Vidal told lottery officials that the media attention following his win in April was overwhelming, after another local business owner — Adam Kemp of the vintage shop Thrifty Beaches — shared his story on Instagram.
'My friend here just won $1 million in the lottery in SLO,' Kemp said in a viral video, pointing at Vidal.
He now plans to keep a much lower profile.
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