JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Winning the lottery may be as simple as knowing where to buy the lucky ticket.
In Jacksonville all signs point to a location just beyond the Rainbow Shop at Edgewood Avenue West and Avenue B.
Klean Kutz barber Nate Thomas is one of dozens who've scored big there.
"First I didn't believe that. I had to check the ticket a couple times. Nope, I didn't win that much. Let me do it again. And I looked at it real carefully," said Thomas.
Thomas won a thousand dollars in a scratch off game purchased at the Shell station at Edgewood Avenue West and Avenue B.
He's even got the IRS documents to prove it. And the buzz around Klean Kutz is there are lots of neighborhood winners out there.
"What provoked me was like every time I go in there I'd see a date where somebody else done won. And it's like a lot of money. And I said somebody else won again? And they'd say, somebody else won again," Thomas said.
Some of the biggest winners score top billing inside the Shell. A copy of Thomas' ticket is there alongside a person who won 10-thousand a few days earlier.
"So I went back to the tell the man at the gas station I said, boy that was a lucky one you gave me," said the winner.
Lucky him! But it should be lucky them. When it comes to the sheer number of winners, you likely won't find a luckier place than the Shell station at station at Edgewood Avenue West and Avenue B. They had 69 winners in 2012 of $600 or more.
The average won, $4,471. Other locations paid out big money too, far bigger.
We know because Action News got its hands on the list of all the winning lottery retailers in Duval County in 2012.
We crunched the numbers. Of the more than 4,100 people who won $600 or more in Duval County, the Baldwin Kwik Mart paid out the most at nearly $3,000,000.
A place known as The Pantry on Townsend Road paid out $1.6 million...
The Holiday Grocery on Shindler Drive scored big money for 38 players. However, it still pales in comparison to the nearly 70 winners at the Shell where already this year, a few players like Thomas have struck gold on the other side of the Rainbow...
But he won't be too quick to try his luck again anytime soon.
"I have to wait until I get some extra money first because I am not giving them they're money back that easy," said Thomas.
