ALBANY - Maybe you have your own lucky lottery store, but these are the luckiest, state records show.
A review of the last six years of lottery winnings over $5,000 showed some retailers are more lucky than others.
There have been nearly 25,000 New York Lottery tickets sold between 2012 and 2017 that yielded jackpots of at least $5,000.
Some of the winning stores are no surprise.
For example, the most winners came from the Carlton Cards newsstand in Penn Station in midtown Manhattan, according to a review of lottery records obtained by USA TODAY Network's Albany Bureau through a Freedom of Information law request.
It's lucky for good reason: The store is the biggest seller of lottery tickets in New York, selling on average $246,000 a week.
In the last six years, it sold 49 tickets worth at least $5,000, including a $59 million Mega Millions jackpot in 2015.
Of course, let's be clear: While one store might have more winners, the odds are the same whenever you play.
And the odds are not in your favor. You have a 1 in 302,575,350 chance of winning Mega Millions. The odds of getting struck by lightning are 1 in 700,000.
Line up for luck
Some stores, however, see an influx of customers after a big win.
That happened at the Yonkers Grocery and Convenience Store after it had a $106 million Mega Millions winner in 2015 — the largest of 41 $1 million-plus winners in Westchester County since 2012.
"People think that way when we had the big jackpot. They think it’s a lucky place," said store clerk Sammy Patel.
The Irish Mini Market in Yonkers also was a local star: It had a $10 million Win for Life instant lottery winner in 2012.
For the multi-state lottery Powerball and Mega Millions, the winning retailer gets $10,000. And all retailers get 6 percent of their lottery sales.
New York runs the largest lottery in the nation, reaching nearly $9.9 billion in revenue last year.
The profits from the lottery go to fund education in New York. About $3.3 billion each year goes to fund schools, about 14 percent of the state's total education budget.
Winners or not
The most popular spots don't always produce the most winners, though.
A Valero gas station on Route 302 in Middletown only sold four winning tickets worth at least $5,000 during the five-year span, the state records showed.
But it had the largest jackpot in the state's history: The $321 Mega Millions jackpot in 2014.
Maybe there are lucky counties, too, in New York.
Of the top 10 biggest scores in New York, three were on Staten Island: a $165 million Mega Millions winner in 2016, a $137 million Powerball winner in 2015 and an $86 million Mega Millions hit in 2012.
The Willowbrook Deli on Staten Island sold the $165 million winner, one of four big ones it had since 2012.
Where to play
Wegmans is an upstate institution for its fresh food and sandwiches, but it also isn't a bad spot to play the lottery, the records showed.
The Rochester-based supermarket company sold tickets to 281 big winners at its 46 stores across the state, including million-dollar winners in Rochester, Corning, West Seneca, Niagara Falls and Johnson City.
Tops Markets, though, did even better: 351 winning tickets worth at least $5,000 since 2012.
But that was nothing compared to the roughly 1,000 winners who bought their winning tickets at a 7-Eleven convenience store, the records from the state Lottery Division showed.
Instant lottery luck
If the scratch-off games are your thing, KG Cards in Glen Head in Nassau County on Long Island had the most $5,000-plus winners.
It had 16 winners, including a $5 million winner on a "Wild Bonanza" multiplier ticket and a winning jackpot on a $3 million "Frenzy" ticket.
But the biggest instant lottery winners came from the North Country.
Two "Win $1 Million A Year for Life" tickets were sold in the region: one in 2013 in Clinton County and one a year later in St. Lawrence County. Each is valued at $20 million.
Regional finds
Broome County had 11 winners over $1 million since 2012 — the largest a $10 million scratch-off game in 2015 at the Mirabito gas station in Vestal.
Dutchess County also had a $10 million scratch-off winner at a Stewart's Shop in Poughkeepsie in January 2017, one of nine $1 million prizes the county has had since 2012.
In Monroe County, the biggest jackpots didn't come from the multi-state games Powerball and Mega Millions, but from the in-state Lotto — and in the same town.
Last October, a $9.8 million winner was crowned at the Hegedorns Market in Webster, while in 2013, there was a $3.2 million Lotto winner at nearby Baytowne Liquor.
Trying to land the big winner is okay, but it also can lead to gambling addiction, said James Maney, the director of the state Council on Problem Gambling.
He said big drawings create excitement, which can be hard on people with gambling problems. He said the state gambling hotline gets its most calls from people with addiction to the lottery than anything else.
"All we ever ask for is more education, more awareness for the small percentage who will have difficulty with this and that safeguards are in place," Maney said.
Joseph Spector is chief of USA TODAY Network's Albany Bureau, and Sean Lahman is a staff writer and database specialist for the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.
