Milk Barn owner receives bonus of $69K for selling $6.9-million winning Lotto ticket

Published 10:39 am Thursday, October 2, 2008

On Sunday, Nov. 6, Simon Cho, owner of the Milk Barn Grocery and Deli in Snoqualmie, received an unexpected call from a Washington State Lottery Lotto representative.

He was told that the winning ticket from the Nov. 5 drawing for the $6.9-million Lotto jackpot – the largest since June – had been purchased at his store, which rests at the corner of Railroad Avenue (State Route 202) and Meadowbrook Way Southeast.

As a result of the winning ticket purchase, Cho’s store received a retail selling bonus of 1 percent of the total winnings, which came to $69,000 before taxes.

Cho said that his first goal was to purchase more inventory for the store.

Moving to Issaquah from California a year and a half ago with Su, his wife of 30 years, Cho has only owned the Milk Barn for the past five months. The Teriyaki Barn, adjacent to the Milk Barn, is owned and operated independently.

Cho said he had never before sold a winning ticket for such a large amount.

Though Cho said the winner has yet to return to the store, he noted that lottery ticket purchases have increased since the Milk Barn was identified as the place where the winning ticket was sold.

The jackpot winner of the Nov. 5 drawing was Mike Kolisch, a 35-year-old heavy equipment operator and single father of three from Buckley who was working in the area. He purchased the ticket the Friday before the Saturday drawing.

At the time of his winning, Kolisch said that his co-worker was the one who intended to buy a ticket when they went into the Milk Barn.

Pressed for time, though, he didn’t buy one; Kolisch paid for $5 worth of Quick Pick tickets.

That Monday, after the numbers had already been announced, Kolisch said in later interviews that he heard that the winning ticket had been purchased at the Milk Barn.

He was on his cell phone with the same co-worker when he learned he had won.

“He was reading the numbers. He read the first two and I read the last four off,” he said at the time. “I don’t remember much driving to work after that.”

The winning numbers were 25, 29, 40, 46, 47 and 48.

Kolisch decided to collect a pay-out of $207,000 yearly for the next 26 years.

Lotto tickets are $1 for two chances to play. People can either select six numbers from 01 to 49, or select “Quick Pick” and let a computer select the numbers at random.

The Lotto starts at $1 million and continues to grow based on statewide sales until there is a winner. Lottery games were introduced to Washington State in 1982 as a way to generate revenue for state programs.

Lotto drawings are held each Monday, Wednesday and Saturday at 8 p.m. Players must be 18 years or older to purchase a lottery ticket.

For information or to check winning numbers, visit www.walottery.com.