RALEIGH, N.C. — Lottery officials in North Carolina are waiting for the holder of one of three winning tickets in the $564 million Powerball drawing to step forward.
A statement from the N.C. Education Lottery on Thursday said a Scotchman convenience store in the town of Shallotte in Brunswick County sold the ticket. The store is eligible to receive a $50,000 retailer incentive award for selling a winning jackpot ticket.
The winner has 180 days from Wednesday’s drawing to claim the prize at lottery headquarters in Raleigh. The win is the fourth time that a North Carolina ticket has claimed a Powerball jackpot.
The other two winning tickets were sold in Texas and Puerto Rico – the first winner outside the continental United States.
Several Puerto Ricans who bought tickets at a Shell station in the coastal city of Ponce have stopped by to ask about who won, said employee Yomaris Rentas.
She had just started her shift at the 24-hour station early Thursday when the lottery machine began printing a message alerting her that the winning ticket had been sold there.
“I couldn’t believe it!” she said with a laugh. “We’re celebrating.”
The winner can claim the prize starting on Friday, choosing between a lump sum payment of $101.6 million or 30 payments over 29 years, said Antonio Perez Lopez, assistant secretary of the Puerto Rico Lottery.
“We are beyond thrilled with the news that we already have a multimillion-dollar winner just four months after Puerto Rico began selling Powerball tickets,” he said.
