If you can’t avoid the lure of hitting a lotto jackpot, we’ve got some insight into the most winning sites in Delaware to buy that lucky ticket.
We analyzed more than a decade of big lottery wins in Delaware to identify where the most winning tickets were sold.
The data includes lottery ticket wins of $10,000 and above from July 2009 through March 2022 and instant ticket wins of $5,000 and above starting in 2020, when the Delaware Lottery began tracking those.
We’ve highlighted businesses with at least three big wins.
Books & News Plus on Chestnut Hill Road in Ogletown topped the list with nine winning tickets over the past 13 years, for total lottery earnings of $1.38 million.
One winning Powerball ticket sold on May 2, 2018, won $1 million. Other winning tickets were for $250,000, $40,000 and $25,000. And three winning tickets at this location were for $15,000 and two for $10,000.
More top locations with a high number of lottery wins
- Daily Market in Lewes (nine wins totaling $200,000)
- BP – Pep-Up Gas Station in Millsboro (six wins totaling $294,042)
- TJs Food Mart in Claymont (six wins totaling $278,108)
- Delaware News Center in Brandywine Hundred (six wins totaling $155,016)
- Jack’s Country Maid in Milltown (six wins totaling $155,000)
- Sunoco A-Plus in Elsmere (five wins totaling $254,000)
- Back Bay Tobacco in Millsboro (five wins totaling $50,000)
Many of these stores rely on the lottery to increase traffic to their businesses.
“We do a lot of business in lottery. It’s definitely one of our top things going on in the store, especially the sports betting,” said Kevin Constantini, owner of Jack’s Country Maid on Kirkwood Highway in Milltown. “It’s pretty crazy how some of these people come in three times a day for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and play the lottery.”
Jack’s, which has been a family business since Constantini’s father converted it from a Wawa in 1972, has seen winning tickets for the amounts of $75,000, $50,000, $10,000 and $5,000. Their most recent hit was for $10,000 in February.
The store’s windows display banners boasting their winning tickets to entice customers, Constantini said.
A promising winning streak plus strong relationships between customers and longtime staff might be just the recipe for their continued success, and they even have a second location in Elsmere.
Constantini’s guess is as good as yours on why his store has had so many big wins.
Some people have their own special numbers they think will be winners and others might review instant tickets to see how good the remaining odds are for a certain ticket and the corresponding jackpot, he said.
Locations with 4 lottery wins
- Royal Farms #196, Kirkwood Hwy.; two $10,000 tickets, one for $15,000, one for $50,000
- Uncle Willie’s, Woodside; three $10,000 tickets, one $15,000 ticket
- General Store, Peddler’s Village in Lewes; three $10,000 tickets, one $41,000 ticket
- Glasgow Citgo, Pulaski Highway.; three $10,000 tickets, one $60,000 ticket
- New Castle Shell in Wilmington; one $30,000, one $25,000 ticket; one $20,000 ticket and one $10,000 ticket.
Locations with 3 lottery wins
- Royal Farms #38, Seaford; one $10,000 ticket, one $15,000 ticket, one $50,000 ticket
- Super Fresh #70072, Dewey Beach; one $9,000 ticket, two $10,000 tickets
- Smyrna News & Tobacco, Smyrna; one $10,000 ticket, one $20,000 ticket, one $40,000 ticket
- Royal Farms #123, Oak Orchard; one $20,000 ticket, one $25,000 ticket, one $50,000 ticket
- Delaware News Center, Carpenter Plaza; one $5,009 ticket, one $50,000 ticket, one $50,0007 ticket, one 10k ticket, one 40k ticket
- Shore Stop #254, Angola; one $10,000 ticket, one $50,104 ticket, one $88,100 ticket
- Sunoco A-Plus, Claymont; one $10,003 ticket, one $100,000 ticket, one $206,029 ticket
- Dash In #14911, Delaware Avenue in Wilmington, one $10,000, one $102,020 ticket, one $200,007 ticket
- Acme #813, Foulk & Naamans Road.; one $40,000 ticket, one $50,000 ticket, one $58,000 ticket
- Shoprite of Newark, Chestnut Hill Plaza; one $30,000 ticket, one $50,000 ticket, one $64,102 ticket
What’s in it for the stores
Delaware Lottery retailers receive a 5% sales commission for selling tickets and are paid a 1% commission for every prize redeemed in their store by a customer who wins amounts up to $599.
Locations that churn out a winning ticket are also given several types of bonuses depending on the prize amount.
A 2% of the prize amount bonus when an instant game prize of $100 or more is paid on a ticket.
A $1,000 or 1% of the prize amount, whichever is greater, from all top-prize-winning tickets for Multi-Win Lotto.
Lucky for Life winning tickets warrant a $1,000 bonus per each $25,000 ticket or $5,000 for each top-prize-winning ticket.
A $1,000 bonus for a winning Lotto America ticket with a $100,000 All-Star Bonus prize.
A $5,000 bonus for a jackpot-winning Lotto America ticket.
Delaware Lottery retailers who sell a jackpot-winning ticket for Powerball or Mega Million, a $1,000,000 Powerball or Keno ticket, a Powerball ticket with Power Play that wins $2,000,000 or a Mega Millions (with or without Megaplier) that wins $1,000,000 to $5,000,000 can receive a $10,000 bonus.
