Butler County’s ‘lucky’ stores: 5 places to try for Powerball jackpot

TOP LOTTERY RETAILERS: BUTLER COUNTY

These are the top five Ohio Lottery retailers in Butler County, according to total winnings.

TOP LOTTERY RETAILERS: WARREN COUNTY

These are the top five Ohio Lottery retailers in Warren County, according to total winnings.

Looking to score a winning ticket for Saturday night’s $800 million Powerball drawing?

Then you might want to head to Dixie Delicatessen, 6687 Dixie Highway in Fairfield. The store sold nearly $1.9 million in lottery tickets last year and sold winning tickets worth more than $1.1 million, according to the Ohio Lottery.

Dixie Delicatessen is at the top of the list in Butler County when it comes to lottery sales and total winnings, according to the Ohio Lottery. Other locations in the top five include: Dixie Food Mart (Fairfield), Circle K (Hamilton), Hamilton Quick Stop (Hamilton) and Ameristop Food Mart (Hamilton).

Lottery officials say while there are no “lucky stores” that sell Ohio Lottery tickets, there are stores that sell the most winners, probably because they sell the most tickets.

This information may come in handy since the jackpot in the multi-state Powerball lottery — which already eclipsed records — has hit an estimated $800 million, officials said Friday.

That means that a single winner would have the option of a lump-sum cash payout of an estimated $496 million, officials said.

At this rate, by the time of Saturday’s drawing, the pot will hit $900 million, a lottery spokeswoman said. And if that drawing doesn’t pick a winner, then the prize is expected to surpass $1 billion.

Powerball is played in 44 states, including Ohio, the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.

When asked why the store has been so successful, Jamie Maggard, manager of Dixie Delicatessen, said his employees offer good customer service.

He said the frenzy surrounding the Powerball is creating record sales.

Maggard said customers are talking about what they’d do with the winnings, and that discussion has surpassed the AFC Wild Card game between the Cincinnati Bengals and Pittsburgh Steelers set for tonight at Paul Brown Stadium.

He said 90 percent of the talk is about Powerball and 10 percent the playoff game.

“Someone may have 800 million reasons to be happy,” Maggard said.

His family has owned the delicatessen since 1980 and sold lottery tickets since 1982, he said.

In Warren County, the top seller of winning tickets is Miami Valley Gaming ($581,000), followed by Shell gas station in Mason ($572,000).

The odds of winning the record $800 million jackpot are 1 in 292 million, the lottery said. The winner also will have a large tax bill, they said.

Lottery winnings are taxed like income, and the IRS taxes the top income bracket 39.6 percent. The government will withhold 25 percent of that before the money ever gets to the winner. The rest has to be paid at tax time.

Then there are local taxes. Of the 44 U.S. states that participate in Powerball, all but a handful will take an additional cut of the money, according to lottery statistics site USA Mega.

Exactly how much a winner owes in taxes will depend on how they opt to have the prize money distributed. Lottery winners can choose to take a one-time cash payout, or to receive annual payments for the next 30 years.

If the winner opts for the lump sum, Powerball will award the jackpot’s “cash value,” which is about $496 million. That means the recipient would pay the income tax on that amount up front.

Powerball winners also have the option of collecting their prize money in annual payments, or an annuity.

In that scenario, the jackpot winner will get a small slice of the $496 million up front. Powerball invests the rest and uses the interest to pay out bigger and bigger installments over the next 30 years. Eventually the total could add up to $800 million before taxes.