Lottery Luck at NEPA Neighborhood Store
-->By: Mark Hiller
Updated: October 5, 2012
Scranton, Lackawanna County -- You could call Crown Market owner Joe Troy "Mr. Lucky". His South Scranton business sold the winning Cash Five ticket in the September 28th Pennsylvania Lottery drawing. That ticket is worth more than $504,000. "People from a lot of area know that we sell good winners," chuckled Mr. Troy. He put up a notice that he sold the winning half-million dollar Cash Five ticket on something he calls the Lottery Wall of Fame. It's not the first list of winning tickets that he sold. He has two other poster boards filled with dozens of winners -- from instant scratch off tickets to Pennsylvania Lottery drawings. And there's the biggest winner of all from about a decade ago. "We had that $1,000 a week for life," said Mr. Troy. "Since then, I mean people we still talk about it."
The buzz at the store these days is who is the customer who bought last week's winning Cash Five ticket. "It's out there somewhere. Somebody's got it," said customer Larry Smith of Scranton. "No, I don't have it. If I had it I wouldn't be scratching now." Customers like Mr. Smith keep coming back for tickets. His name is on the board a couple of times -- including his biggest lottery winnings to date on the old game "Lucky For Life" "On the last drawing I won $2,000. The last drawing of the year when they canceled the whole thing."
Retiree John Wilson of Scranton is also a winner but he never cashed in on a big payday. "I won $214 in the Powerball. That's it," and joked "Yeah, aside from that I couldn't win ice in Alaska in the winter." When asked if he though his luck would change he said, "Yeah, I keep trying, what the heck. You never know."
Some say the key to winning is persistence. "If you play enough times, eventually you're going to win something," said Mr. Smith. It also doesn't hurt if the seller has a winning reputation. Mr. Troy collects a $5,000 commission for selling the winning half-million dollar Cash Five ticket.
