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Mystery winner nets US$365m in Powerball lottery

A Powerball lottery ticket sold in Nebraska has the winning numbers for the largest jackpot in US history -- US$365 million -- lottery officials said on 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 on 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.

Lottery officials were to go to the store on Sunday to verify the sale, Rockey said.

The Powerball jackpot topped the previous lottery record, which was US$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 US$340 million was won by an Oregon family in October.

People with dreams of winning the record jackpot stood in lengthening lines on Saturday to buy tickets that flew out of machines at dizzying speeds.

West 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 US$11,000 a minute on Friday, "pretty staggering," said John C.B. Smith, chairman of the state's lottery commission.

Casey Symonds of Omaha bought US$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."

Powerball is played in 28 states plus the District of Columbia and the US Virgin Islands.
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