$365m winning Powerball ticket was sold in Nebraska

LINCOLN, Neb. -- Someone, somewhere held the only winning ticket for the record $365 million Powerball jackpot, but probably wasn't in a rush to come forward, Nebraska lottery officials said yesterday.

The only ticket matching the winning numbers drawn Saturday night for the multistate lottery was sold at a U-Stop convenience store in Lincoln, said Brian Rockey, a spokesman for the Nebraska Lottery.

It was the biggest jackpot on record for any lottery in the United States.

No one had come forward to claim the jackpot yesterday, Rockey said. ''We don't know if the winner knows yet," he said.

Even so, the lucky winner or winners might not leap into the public eye.

''We have found . . . that they tend to wait until they have sought legal counsel or financial counsel," Jim Haynes, acting director of the Nebraska Lottery, said of large jackpot winners.

Rockey said lottery officials planned to go to the store to verify the sale, which would entitle the store owner to a $50,000 bonus.

The store was swarmed with reporters and customers yesterday, said owner Mick Mandl.

''Everybody wants to talk to us," he said. ''They're excited."

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

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

The winning numbers drawn Saturday were 15, 17, 43, 44 and 48, with a Powerball number of 29, according to the Multi-State Lottery Association of Des Moines, which runs the game for the participating states.