Is it a myth about 'lucky' lottery stores - or something else?
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Is it true that there are lucky’ stores that sell the majority of winning jackpot lottery tickets? THV11 goes searching for the truth in a small town in Arkansas and discovers some interesting news.
Just down the road from Riceland Foods Inc, the largest rice producer in the United States, lies a significant source of hope in Arkansas: the cash register at the Valero One-Stop.
"We do sell quite a few winning tickets," says Julie, the store manager. "This morning we've had a $200 winner from a $2.00 ticket, and a lady came in with a $3 Powerball ticket and won $25 from it."
The One-Stop has earned its reputation. A Texas couple won $177 million there a couple of years ago, and people visit in hopes of their own massive payday.
"I have customers from Elmira, DeWitt, and even St. Charles," said manager Julie.
The One-Stop is among a handful of lucky stores across the state known for delivering big prizes. However, lottery officials want to dispel that myth.
"People want to believe, you know, there's a lucky store or a lucky town," says Donna Bragg of the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery.
"The truth is, more people buy tickets in heavily populated areas, and that's where more people win tickets because more people are buying them," said Donna.
Despite what the math suggests, the odds of finding a big winner are much higher in some cities than in others.
Some of the largest cities in Arkansas have similar rates of producing $100,000 prize winners, but Stuttgart produces three times as many per capita as all of them.
Donna added, "It's a self-fulfilling prophecy in a way because many people buy tickets from what they think are lucky stores, and so more people win. They think, 'Oh, they're lucky,' so they keep going, and it makes sense, but it's all surrounded by a sort of myth."
Donna assures everyone that winners are distributed randomly, but that doesn't stop players from holding on to their superstitions.
Julie said, "We have one guy who looks at the ticket; if it has a white line at the bottom, he'll say it's lucky or it's not."
"Or we have one guy who'll hold the ticket up and drop it. If it flops over, then it's got money on it for him."
The trick that actually works? Visiting the lottery website, which posts real-time updates about prize winners.
"Real savvy players will check the website before they decide what tickets they want to buy," Donna says.
"Because they can see, 'Oh, that ticket still has three million-dollar winners out there, so I'm going to go try to find that ticket.'"
When they do, it will likely be at a store with a winning sign. It takes money to make money, and stores that advertise more are likely to sell more tickets and more big winners.
Donna summed it up: "So, I don't know if it's luck or if it's just good business."
One man who will say it’s good business is John Ledda of the Warilla Grove lottery store in Australia's New South Wales.
He says he has sold a major prize-winning lottery ticket every year for over a decade up to 2015. How lucky is that!
