SALEM 12 share in the big payout as Lotto ticket hits for $17M

The group plays regularly but only when the jackpot exceeds $10 million.
By NORMAN LEIGH
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
SALEM -- Dennis Kubina won't be sharing any of this weekend's winning Ohio Lottery ticket, but he's still smiling today.
That's because his convenience store, Quaker Village, 201 S. Lincoln Ave., sold the winning Super Lotto Plus ticket to 12 American Standard workers who'll be sharing a $17 million jackpot.
"We're ecstatic," Kubina said this morning, speaking for himself and his employees.
The lottery commission will pay the store $10,000 for selling the winner.
Although the winners' names have yet to be announced, Kubina said he's familiar with the group, who have been playing the lottery together for a while.
The lucky band's members range in age from their 20s to late 50s.
Ten of them work in maintenance at the American Standard plant on South Ellsworth Avenue. The other two are supervisors at the facility, which manufactures plumbing products and bathroom fixtures.
Picked at random: The group, which only plays when the jackpot is more than $10 million, bought 12 tickets at $1 each. They had the store's lottery computer pick a dozen different six-figure combinations.
One of those combinations was singled out as a winner in Saturday night's drawing, with odds of about 18 million to one.
Kubina said the group is electing to take the immediate cash payout of about $7.5 million, instead of collecting the $17 million over a 30-year period.
The pay-out will give each winner about $430,000 after taxes, Kubina said.
He said the group told him they intended to take a limousine to the lottery commission office in Austintown today to verify the winning ticket.
Will keep working: All of them say they plan to keep working, Kubina said.
An American Standard spokesman was unavailable this morning to comment.
The $17 million jackpot is the biggest Quaker Village has produced in the nearly five years it's been selling lottery tickets, Kubina said.
The largest lottery take from the store before this was $5,000.
Business has been brisk at Quaker Village since news of the big win became known Sunday. Other players hope some of the good luck rubs off on them, Kubina explained.
A sign in front of the store advertises the fact that the winning ticket was sold there.