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Winning NC Powerball ticket sold in Brunswick County

NORTH CAROLINA — Tickets in North Carolina, Puerto Rico and Texas have matched all six numbers to split a $564.1 million Powerball jackpot, lottery officials said Thursday.

The winning ticket in North Carolina was sold in Brunswick County, according to the N.C. Lottery.

The North Carolina Education Lottery said $10,000-winning Powerball tickets were sold in Charlotte, Dunn, Waxhaw, Garner and Asheville.

Three $30,000-winning tickets were sold in Dallas, Hendersonville and Ayden.

Sue Dooley, senior drawing manager and production coordinator for the Multi-State Lottery Association, said the Puerto Rico ticket was the first Powerball jackpot winner ever sold outside the continental United States.

Puerto Rico joined Powerball less than a year ago. Besides 44 states and Washington, D.C., the game is also played in the Virgin Islands, but there has never been a jackpot winner there, Dooley said.

The Texas Lottery posted on Twitter early Thursday that one of the winning tickets was sold at Appletree Food Mart in Princeton, Texas. There was no immediate information on the cities or stores that produced the winners in North Carolina or Puerto Rico but officials in North Carolina said they would be revealing that information around noon.

It had been nearly a year since a Powerball prize reached the giant number people have come to expect recently. That was last February, when someone won $425.3 million.

Wednesday's jackpot was the third-largest in Powerball history and the fifth-largest U.S. lottery prize. The last time a Powerball jackpot climbed so high was May 2013 when a Florida ticket won a $590.5 million prize.

Should the winners select the lump sum option, each would get a one-third share of $381,138,450.16 before taxes. The other option is an annuity, under which the lottery would make payments 30 times over 29 years.

The largest payout in U.S. history was to three ticketholders in the Mega Millions game, the other national lottery drawing. That was a $656 million prize won in March 2012 by players in Kansas, Illinois and Maryland.

In 2012, state officials who run Powerball and Mega Millions changed ticket prices and lowered the odds of winning jackpots in hopes the moves would increase the number of huge prizes and draw more players. The new rules worked, causing jackpots to repeatedly climb to record levels. More than half of the top 10 U.S. jackpots have been reached in the past couple of years.

The winning numbers in Wednesday's drawing were: 11, 13, 25, 39, 54 and the Powerball 19.

The jackpot now goes back to $40 million for the next drawing on Saturday.

Facts about Powerball

Thursday's $564 million jackpot, according to the Powerball website, has been growing for the past two months, gradually increasing since starting at $40 million.

The six states that do not have the Powerball: Alabama, Alaska, Hawaii, Mississippi, Nevada and Utah.

CLICK here for a list of prizes and odds on the Powerball.

It's more likely to die in a lightning strike -- one in 136,000 -- or on board a plane -- one in 8,000, CNN Money reported.

It's more likely to be crushed by an asteroid that falls out of the sky -- one in 700,000 -- or a high school football player will play professionally -- one in 1 million.

CLICK here for more statistics from CNN Money on the odds of winning the lottery.

Powerball, has been known, along with Mega Millions, for its record-breaking jackpots in recent years.

The association also operates the Mega Millions jackpot, which awarded a top prize of $656 million in 2012.

MORE INFO: Why lottery jackpots are so high

The game costs $2 for a single play for one drawing. To add the Power Play multiplier, it costs an additional $1 for each play.

CLICK here for more information on how to play.

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