As Mega Millions jackpot surges to $1.5B, here are Macon’s leading lottery sales locations
On Monday morning, as a steady flow of Georgia lottery contestants streamed into the convenience store that is Macon’s leading seller of scratch-off and number-guessing tickets, Mega Millions fever seemed yet to take hold.
Then again, the drawing for the rolled-over, nationwide $1.5 billion jackpot wasn’t until Tuesday night.
Lottery regulars at the LoLo Food Mart at the corner of Pio Nono Avenue and Eisenhower Parkway were more concerned about matters at hand. The midday Cash 3, for instance. Or hitting it big on one of the oodles of scratch-off cards sold there.
Contestant Erma Jones seemed well aware that the LoLo, which overlooks one of the city’s busiest intersections, is the go-to lotto spot for many locals.
“That’s why we come here,” she said, explaining that tickets sold there in the high-volume setting are somehow more freshly printed than those that, say, grow stale at other stores. “We don’t have to get an old ticket that’s been (on the rack) for a whole year.”
Jones, 66, also said she would not be trying her hand at the Mega Millions game.
“I don’t mess with that one,” she said.
Not even for a shot at a bazillion bucks?
“Yeah,” Jones said, “but it’s a zillion in 1 that I have a chance.”
LoLo proprietor Scottie Patel said sales at his establishment for the Mega Millions game likely won’t surge until sometime Tuesday in the hours leading up to that night’s drawing.
He said it seems that no one in Georgia ever wins the Mega Millions jackpots, and that folks here don’t much like it.
“That’s what they complain about,” Patel said.
What they apparently do not gripe about is buying lottery tickets at LoLo. The place sells more than any location in Macon.
Here’s a list of Macon’s top-selling retailers in order of sales, according to the Georgia Lottery Corp.:
LoLo Food Mart, 2490 Pio Nono Ave.
Mike Food Mart, 6398 Zebulon Road
Forsyth Food Mart, 4451 Forsyth Road
Sunoco Food Mart, 4017 Hartley Bridge Road
Northside Citgo, 1592 Forest Hill Road
Sprint No. 6, 2075 Rocky Creek Road
Citgo Food Mart, 1924 Forsyth St.
Sprint No. 5, 3911 Napier Ave.
Jim Food Mart, 1920 Jeffersonville Road
Ingleside Food Mart, 2304 Ingleside Ave.
