Three ticket holders with a claim on a record $US1.6 billion ($A2.3 billion) Powerball jackpot are lying low, their identities officially still a mystery.
Each of the winning tickets is worth $US528.8 million to the holders, lottery officials said in California, one of 44 states plus Washington DC and two US territories that sold millions of Powerball tickets.
The winning numbers of 8, 27, 34, 4, 19 and Powerball 10, drawn on Wednesday night, appeared on tickets sold in three stores: a 7-Eleven convenience store in Chino Hills, California, a Publix supermarket in Melbourne Beach, Florida and Naifeh's Food Mart in Munford, Tennessee.
The jackpot winners overcame odds of one in 292 million.
"The Chino Hills winner has not come forward yet," California Lottery said on its Twitter feed.
Los Angeles TV station KABC backed away from a story it reported that a registered nurse in Pomona, California, was one of the jackpot winners after the woman's daughter said her mother was not the winner.
At a media conference in front of the 7-Eleven, lottery officials presented a symbolic cheque for $US1 million to the owner of the franchise, Balbir Atwal, for selling a jackpot winning ticket.
The winners in Florida and Tennessee have not come forward, lottery officials in those states said.
With each state setting its own lottery rules, the Tennessee retailer, in a Memphis suburb, received $US25,000 and the Florida retailer, in a tiny coastal town, will get $US100,000.
The previous 19 Powerball drawings produced no jackpot winners. The bounty soared to a record $US1.586 billion by Wednesday, fuelled by what had become a national preoccupation with Powerball and the prospect of taking home untold riches.
Under the rules, winners have up to a year to come forward. All three states with winners have laws requiring their names to be released publicly, according to the Powerball website.
To receive the full jackpot amount, winners must accept a multi-year annuity, whereas the lump-sum payout for the jackpot was about $US983.5 million, lottery officials said.
The cycle will start again on Saturday night when the next Powerball drawing will have an estimated jackpot of $US40 million.
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