Powerball Winners Awarded Check in Missouri; Arizona Winner Still Unidentified, More Than 50 Win $1 Million

Two Powerball tickets matched all six numbers and won Wednesday night's record jackpot, which grew to $587.5 million.

One Powerball ticket, sold in Missouri, has already been claimed by a working class family of six. Cindy and Mark Hill of Dearborn, Mo., bought five tickets on a whim earlier this week. They didn't even check the winning numbers until Thursday. They'd left the tickets sitting in their car.

"We're still stunned by what's happened. It's surreal and people keep asking us, 'What are you going to buy with it?' I just want to go home and be back to normal," said Cindy Hill at the news conference where the winners were presented their check. The Hills chose the immediate lump-sum payment, so their half of the jackpot came to $293,750,000.

The Hills have three adult sons and an adopted daughter from China. They say they're considering adopting again now that they've won the lottery.

The other ticket, sold in Arizona, has not yet been claimed, but a gas station cashier in Maryland says a man carrying the winning ticket checked his numbers there, pumping his fist when they matched.

The winning numbers for the Powerball jackpot for Wednesday, Nov. 28 were: 5, 16, 22, 23, 29 and the red Powerball was 6.

In addition to the jackpot winners, 58 tickets across the country won $1 million each by matching four of the five numbers. Eight tickets won $2 million.

Long lines formed earlier this week as people around the country queued up to buy tickets before the deadline at 9pm EST on Wednesday night. Even people who don't usually play the lottery were wooed by the chance to win more than a half billion dollars in one go.

There is no limit to the number of tickets a singe person can buy, so many people, especially habitual lottery hounds, were buying dozens, or even hundreds of tickets.

In Florida alone, more than $10 million worth of tickets were sold by 2:00 Wednesday afternoon. Tickets are two dollars apiece, up from a single dollar last year, but the odds are slightly better, with the number of red "Powerball" options reduced to 35 from 39.

Ticket buyers must guess six numbers correctly, so a smaller pool of numbers from which to choose increases the odds of winning, albeit by only a little, especially given the odds to begin with. The chances of winning the $550 million jackpot were 1 in 175,223,510.

Forty-two states participate in the Powerball drawing, though anyone over the age of 18 can purchase a ticket, regardless of residency or citizenship.

The drawing was held tonight at 10:59pm EST Wednesday night.