A Powerball ticket sold in Nebraska has the winning numbers for the largest jackpot in the nation’s history — $365 million — lottery officials said Sunday.
Only one winning ticket was sold for Saturday’s jackpot, according to the Powerball Web site. No one had come forward to claim the jackpot early Sunday, Nebraska Lottery spokesman Brian Rockey said.
“We don’t know if the winner knows yet,” he said.
A U-Stop convenience store in Lincoln sold the winning ticket, Rockey said.
“If I sold the ticket to ’em I hope they’d share in the winnings — at least, even one-tenth of a percent would suit me just fine,” Stacey Carey, a clerk at the store, told AP Radio in a telephone interview.
The store was swarmed with reporters and customers Sunday, said owner Mick Mandl. “Everybody wants to talk to us,” he said. “They’re excited.”
Lottery officials will go to the store Sunday to verify the sale, Rockey said.
The winning numbers drawn Saturday were 15, 17, 43, 44 and 48, with a Powerball number of 29, according to the Multi-State Lottery Association of Des Moines, Iowa, which runs the game for the participating states.
The Powerball jackpot topped the previous lottery record, which was $363 million for the Big Game — the forerunner of Mega Millions. That was won by two ticket holders in Illinois and Michigan in 2000.
Powerball’s previous record of $340 million was won by an Oregon family in October.
People with dreams of winning the record jackpot stood in lengthening lines Saturday to buy tickets that flew out of machines at dizzying speeds.
S.C. sales: $11,000 a minuteWest Virginia retailers cranked out tickets at a rate of 29 per second on Friday, said Libby White, the lottery’s marketing director. North Carolina and Virginia residents called the West Virginia lottery asking for directions to the closest retailer, she said.
Sales in South Carolina reached $11,000 a minute on Friday, “pretty staggering,” said John C.B. Smith, chairman of the state’s lottery commission.
Jerry Bono, a furniture mover from Omaha, said he averages $10 worth of Powerball tickets per week, but goes for the big jackpots and leaves the lesser games alone. “If I lose, I lose, but if I ever hit, I’d get out of here and move to Las Vegas,” he said.
Casey Symonds of Omaha bought $25 worth of tickets for himself and four co-workers Friday, saying: “I figure somebody is going to win it, so it might as well be me.”
The ticket holder has the option of taking the money in one lump sum or installments over 30 years. The cash option is $177.8 million, or $124.46 million after taxes. On the installment plan, the first payment would be $6,507,986 after taxes.
Powerball is played in 28 states plus the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands.