11/29/2012

Did you wake up rich? Two share $580M jackpot

The record $580 million Powerball jackpot will be split by the owners of tickets sold in Missouri and Arizona, according to lottery officials. NBC's Stephanie Gosk reports.

Lottery mania in the largest prize in Powerball history culminated early Thursday morning when lottery officials confirmed there were two winning tickets in the $579.9 million jackpot: one sold in Arizona, the other in Missouri.

The frenzy now surrounds the identities of the lucky winners.

Arizona lottery officials said early Thursday they would announce where that state's ticket was sold during a news conference later in the day. It wasn't immediately clear when Missouri would announce where its ticket was sold. 

Lottery officials have not yet said whether the winning numbers of Wednesday night's record drawing -- 05 - 16 - 22 - 23 - 29 and Powerball 06 -- were picked by individuals or groups.

The jackpot had rolled over 16 consecutive times without a winner, prompting Americans to go on a ticket-buying spree in the run-up to the drawing. At one point, tickets were selling at a rate of 130,000 a minute nationwide — about six times the volume from a week ago.

As lottery official Sue Dooley notes, tickets matching all five of the white balls in the record $580 million Powerball drawing, can be cashed in for $1 million in prize money.

In addition, Powerball officials said that eight people won $2 million prizes and 58 other ticketholders won $1 million.

Although this Powerball jackpot is a big one, it's not the largest lottery prize ever. That mark is held by the $656 million Mega Millions jackpot that was split by three ticket buyers earlier this year. The previous biggest Powerball prize was $365 million in 2006, shared by several ConAgra Foods workers in Lincoln, Neb. 

Advice for the lucky people who won the huge Powerball jackpot
11 things more likely to happen than winning the Powerball jackpot

Powerball is played across 42 states, plus Washington, D.C., and the Virgin Islands.

On Wednesday afternoon, the Arizona Republic reported long lines at stores across Arizona that sold Powerball tickets -- particularly at the Arizona Last Stop in White Hills, which was the store to sell the most tickets in the state since the jackpot started rolling on Oct. 6, according to Arizona lottery officials. 

Located about 35 miles from the border of Nevada, a state where Powerball isn't available, Arizona Last Stop store manager Lynda Yovanno Ducas said she had had lines stretching down the road since last week.

"My Black Friday isn't over yet," she told The Arizona Republic.

As for the winner or winners: All but five states -- Delaware, Kansas, Maryland, North Dakota and Ohio -- require the lottery to release the winning names to anyone who asks, according to the Powerball site. 

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

No comments:

Post a Comment