A 'lucky place' along the Main Line

As a convenience store owner in one of the area's most affluent suburbs, Tariq Mahmood is accustomed to meeting - not minting - millionaires.

But his Sunoco APlus store in Wynnewood did just that Monday, selling a Pennsylvania Cash 5 ticket worth $1 million to a 31-year-old West Chester man.

The busy store and gas station is on Lancaster Avenue in Lower Merion, the heart of the Main Line. Just as popular as its gas and soda, however, are its lottery machines; Monday's winner was a regular patron and his ticket the third big jackpot sold there in a year.

"We're the lucky place here," said cashier Mohammad Chaudhary, who sold the winning ticket.

Some who play live in Lower Merion, where the average household income is $190,000, according to census data.

"They drive expensive cars - Benz, Audi - and they come here and play the lottery," Mahmood said.

One regular has made millions in real estate, Mahmood said, but still buys his lottery tickets.

" 'You're already rich,' " Mahmood said he has told the man. "And he says, "If I hit it, the extra money won't hurt.' "

The store sells $40,000 in tickets a week, more than twice as much as his store in Chestnut Hill, Mahmood said. It draws about 500 customers who routinely play the lottery.

Most don't live in Wynnewood, but work in the area or pass through en route to the city.

Manager Khurram Aijaz says he knows many by name. And they were buzzing with excitement - if not envy - about Monday's winner.

"That was supposed to be mine," said Alresea Jones, her eyes widening at the cash register.

Jones, a Lower Merion School District bus attendant who lives in North Philadelphia, said she buys scratch-off tickets every day on her lunch break.

"Honey, we all have a habit, and this is mine," she said.

Joe Falcone of Lower Merion works at the Whole Foods store across the street. As he stopped in Tuesday for a soda and scratch-off lottery tickets, the 61-year-old Narberth native said he also comes to see his neighbors and fellow lottery players.

Mahmood sold another $1 million ticket last year, and a $700,000 winner a few months ago.

He earns five cents for every dollar in tickets sold, but the high volume of sales makes it "a business within a business," he said. The store will earn $5,000 for selling Monday's million-dollar ticket.

As the lunchtime crowd lined up for tickets Tuesday, Monday's winner stopped back in to get the paperwork to claim his prize. Other regulars crowded around him, shouting and shaking his hand.

The man, who asked not to be identified, was not a lottery newcomer. He said he spent $3,000 on tickets last year, but also won $18,000.

"I wish I was the one," said another player, Beatrice Taylor, 63, a home health aide in Lower Merion who spends as much as $50 per week on lottery tickets.

Sometimes it pays off - last week she won $500 - and sometimes it does not.

"But," she said after buying her tickets and a pack of cigarettes, "it doesn't stop me from playing."

610-313-8116@Lmccrystal