Powerball Lottery Jackpot Winners Revealed

A 52-year-old Missouri mechanic and his wife have claimed their share of the record \$588m Powerball lottery jackpot.

Lottery officials said Mark and Cindy Hill held one of the two winning tickets, representing the second-largest jackpot in US history.

Before the official announcement, Mr Hill had confirmed via Facebook that he had bought one of the winning tickets at a Trex Mart near his hometown Dearborn in Missouri about 35 miles (56km) north of Kansas City.

"We are truly blessed ... we were lucky winners of the powerball!" Mr Hill posted, according to newspressnow.com.

A friend of Mr Hill, Myron Anderson, pastor of the Baptist Church, said the couple have older children and a younger school-age daughter.

"He's a really nice guy, and I know his wife, and they have this nice little adopted daughter that they went out of their way to adopt," Mr Anderson said.

The Trex Mart store will be awarded \$50,000 for selling the winning ticket.

The other winning ticket was sold in Arizona, at a 4 Sons Food Store in Fountain Hills, just outside of Phoenix.

The winner lives in Tucson and has told lottery organisers they want to remain anonymous.

The odds of winning Wednesday night's draw were estimated to be one in 175 million.

Americans went on a ticket-buying spree in the run-up to the lottery, the big money enticing many people who rarely, if ever, play the lottery to purchase a shot at the second-largest payout in US history.

Tickets sold at a rate of 130,000-a-minute nationwide, about six times the volume from a week earlier, which pushed the jackpot even higher.

The jackpot had rolled over 16 consecutive times without a winner.

Powerball's website crashed shortly after the winning numbers - 5, 16, 22, 23, 29 and Powerball of 6 - were announced, as did that of the Multi-State Lottery Association, which oversees Powerball.

Besides the jackpot, Powerball players can win as much as \$1m if they hold tickets with most but not all the drawn numbers, but many people are unaware of these prizes and they can end up going unclaimed.

The biggest jackpot in US lottery history of \$656m was claimed in March 2012 by MegaMillions players in Kansas, Illinois and Maryland who all held tickets bearing the same winning numbers.