At least three people could be millionaires many times over.
Three winning jackpot tickets were sold for the Powerball lottery that stood at an estimated $564.1 million Wednesday night — one each in Texas, North Carolina and Puerto Rico, the Multi-State Lottery Association said. The winners will split the jackpot, the fifth-largest lottery prize in U.S. history, each roughly getting $188 million.
The winning ticket in Texas was sold at Appletree Food Mart in Princeton, north of Dallas, officials said. North Carolina said its winning ticket was snagged in Brunswick County, which is home to the city of Wilmington.
The numbers, drawn at 11 p.m. ET Wednesday, were 11, 13, 25, 39 and 54, with a Powerball number of 19.
There were 33 players whose tickets matched all but the Powerball and are eligible for an estimated $1 million prize. No one had won the Powerball jackpot for more than two months, so the prize grew gradually from its $40 million starting point.
While six states — Delaware, Kansas, Maryland, North Dakota, Ohio and South Carolina — allow newly minted millionaires to remain completely anonymous, Wednesday's lucky winners will have to come forward. Texas, however, does permit lottery winners to claim the prize through a trustee who can act as their public representative. Other states have similar rules.
It's been nearly a year since a Powerball prize topped $400 million. Powerball is sold in 44 states as well as Washington, D.C., the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. The chance of winning the big prize is about 1 in 175 million.
