Lawrence man wins $1 million on scratch ticket

By Lauren Dezenski, Globe Correspondent

A Lawrence man is the latest state lottery player to hit it big, buying a $1 million winning scratch ticket from a Methuen convenience store.

Bruce Ahearn, 55, who won with a $5 Black Pearls ticket, said he planned to use the $455,000 lump sum he receives after taxes to buy a car, pay bills, and help out his family, said Massachusetts Lottery spokeswoman Beth Bresnahan.

Wednesday marked the fifth time in five years someone had won a million dollars from Hasmuck Vora’s Route 110 Convenience store

Vora, 55, said he sold two million-dollar tickets in one month in 2007 at his store at 196 East St., along with two more winning tickets in 2011.

“I thought he [Ahern] was kidding” about winning, Vora said.

Methuen, on the New Hampshire border, despite its relatively small size, ranks 10th in lottery sales in the state, with 133 prizes over $100,000 sold since August 1983, including a $42 million winner in 1997.

“Communities like Methuen have high sales due to heavy cross-border play from out-of-state customers who recognize that Massachusetts Lottery games pay out much higher,” said Bresnahan.

Bresnahan said the distribution of winning tickets is completely random, which means that “retailers who sell more are more likely to produce a higher number of wins because it is proportionate to volume of tickets sold.”