The clock is ticking for the luckiest person in America.

Whoever bought the winning $590 million Powerball ticket at a Publix supermarket in Florida has two months to come forward, a shorter window than in some other states.

But on Monday, the winner’s identity remained a mystery — and the subject of a guessing game that everybody was playing in Zephyrhills, a city of about 13,000 outside Tampa that is better known for its national brand of bottled water.

“I’m getting text messages and messages from Facebook going, ‘Uh, did you win the lottery?’” Sandra Lewis told The Associated Press. “No, I didn’t win, guys. Sorry.”

We know this much: Whoever bought the ticket beat odds of about 175 million to 1 to choose the winning numbers drawn Saturday night — 10, 13, 14, 22 and 52, with a Powerball of 11.

If it’s a single winner — not one ticket held by a pool at the office or among friends — that person will apparently claim the largest jackpot awarded to one person in American history: $370 million if he or she takes a lump-sum payment.

The largest jackpot was a $656 million prize last year in another multi-state drawing, Mega Millions, but that prize was split among three winners in Maryland, Kansas and Illinois.

In some other states, even for the same national Powerball jackpot, the winner would have a year to come forward. In Iowa in 2011, a winner waited 364 days and 22 hours to claim a $14 million state jackpot.

And Florida has no state income tax, so if the winner lives there — and wasn’t just in town for Zephyrhills’ popular skydiving tours — he or she will save millions more.

Lottery officials in Florida did not seem surprised that no one had claimed the prize in the first two days.

“It never happens this quickly,” said David Bishop, a Florida lottery spokesman. “If they know they won, they’re going to contact their attorney or an accountant first so they can get their affairs in order.”

Meanwhile, the jackpot would be enough to fund the city of Zephyrills for 12 years, based on their current budget — but the $148 million in estimated federal income taxes is only enough to power the U.S. government for about a half-hour.

The ticket is also good for an $85,000 bonus commission for the Publix supermarket. For thousands of other people, though, it’s good for nothing.

“I wish it was me,” Cindy Frappier said as she walked out of the Publix on Sunday. “But it wasn’t.”

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

This story was originally published on Mon May 20, 2013 9:00 AM EDT

Brian Blanco / EPA

Clutching the Powerball tickets that she estimates she won $8 on, Denise Godsey looks over at a gaggle of gathered television news trucks at a Publix in Zephyrhills, Fla.

The residents of a small Florida town known for its bottled water are now thirsty to know if one of their neighbors is the sole winner of the largest Powerball jackpot in history.

Lottery officials confirmed early Sunday that the one winning ticket for the estimated $590.5 million prize was sold at a Publix supermarket in Zephyrhills, Fla.

But so far, only the losers have come forward.  

“I wish it was it was me. But it wasn’t,” said Cindy Frappier as she exited the lucky Publix on Sunday.  

“I’m happy for whoever did win,” said Roberta Cutting as she made her way into the store.

Zephyrhills is about 30 miles northeast of Tampa, and is where the popular bottled water that bears its name is produced.

It is also a hotbed for skydiving, and attracts thrill seekers from around the world — which increases the possibility that the lotto winner is not from the area, but an out-of-towner who just happened to drop in on the supermarket on while visiting.

Many of the shoppers on Sunday wondered aloud whether or not they know the soon-to-be millionaire, and many hoped some of the winnings would go back into the town with a population of 13,337. 

Joan Albertson drove to the Publix early Sunday morning with her camera in hand, in case the winner emerged. She said she had bought a ticket at a store across the street, and the idea of winning that much money was still something of a shock.

"Oh, there's so much good that you could do with that amount of money," Albertson said. "I don't even know where to begin."

Others, like local Danny Rike, are still holding out hope that they've actually won. Rike participated in a Powerball office pool, and though none of his co-workers have alerted him that they’ve won — no one has said they lost, either.

“It could be a good surprise for tomorrow when I go into work,” he said.

Crunching the numbers reveals that the enormous jackpot could fund the city of Zephyrhills government for 12 years. The $148 million in taxes on the gargantuan purse could fund the federal government for almost 27 minutes.

If the winner takes the lump sum, it will be a $370 million payday, the second largest ever in the U.S.

It traditionally takes days or weeks for big winners like the one on Saturday to come forward. "It never happens this quickly," Florida Lottery spokesman David Bishop told the Associated Press. "If they know they won, they're going to contact their attorney or an accountant first so they can get their affairs in order."

The winning numbers were 10, 13, 14, 22 and 52, with a Powerball of 11. The chances of winning were 1 in 175.2 million.

The country's largest ever jackpot was a $656 million Mega Millions jackpot in March 2012. But that prize was split between winners in Maryland, Kansas and Illinois.

The store where the winning ticket was sold will receive an $85,000 bonus commission, according to Shelly Gerteisen, a spokeswoman for the Florida Lottery.

Publix spokeswoman Maria Brous said that there are a lot of rumors about who won, but the store doesn't know. "We're excited for the winner or winners," she said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report

Will the winner of the next Powerball drawing be one of the luckiest people in the world? Or will more money really, as the man once said, mean more problems?

At a massive $600 million as of Friday afternoon, the prize was the largest estimated Powerball jackpot ever after a drawing Wednesday failed to yield a winner.

But what is a modern Croesus to do with all that dough? While some winners manage to fulfill their dreams and keep in the black, others go overboard – and some lottery winners wind up dead.

It’s the American dream with an adrenaline epidural, and no one knows how they’re going to react until their number gets called.

James A. Finley / AP file

Winners of the $224.2 million Powerball jackpot pose for a group photo in Clayton, Mo. on April 13, 2006. Sandra Hayes is third from the left.

The National Endowment for Financial Education estimates that as many as 70 percent of Americans who experience a sudden windfall will lose that money within a few years. People handed a hefty check also usually experience erratic emotions ranging from elation to resentment to anger, according to the NEFE.

Or you could wind up like the luckless Hurley of "Lost" fame.

The best way to deal with a life-changing windfall might be to stick to a budget and a routine, at least according to some past winners.

Missouri child services worker Sandra Hayes split a $224 million Powerball jackpot in 2006 with a dozen co-workers. She kept her job with the state for a month after taking a $6 million lump sum, she told The Associated Press.

“I had to adapt to this new life,” Hayes said. “I had to endure the greed and the need that people have, trying to get you to release your money to them. That caused a lot of emotional pain. These are people who you’ve loved deep down, and they’re turning into vampires trying to suck the life out of me.”

Even the biggest winner can lose it all, she told the AP: “If you’re not disciplined, you will go broke. I don’t care how much money you have.”

With unexpected riches can come unwanted publicity, too. New Jersey bodega owner Pedro Quezada made tabloid headlines with his $338 million Powerball win in March, the fourth largest jackpot ever.

Julio Cortez / AP file

Pedro Quezada, the winner of the Powerball jackpot, holds up a promotional check during a news conference at the New Jersey Lottery headquarters, on March 26, in Lawrenceville, N.J.

Then the Passaic County Sheriff’s office got a whiff of his winnings, and announced Quezada owed $29,000 in child support and had an outstanding warrant in his name.

Quezada, a father of five from the Dominican Republic, said he wanted to help others at a press conference after he turned in the lucky ticket he bought at his neighborhood liquor store.

“My family is a very humble family and we’re going to help each other out,” Quezada said as he grasped a giant yellow New Jersey Lottery check.

For still other winners, the wheel of fortune has taken a more macabre turn after they raked in their loot.

Chicago dry cleaner Urooj Khan won $1 million on a scratch-off lottery ticket last summer – then dropped stone dead of what a medical examiner later said was cyanide poisoning. The man had bought the ticket at a Windy City 7-Eleven, and said later that he tipped the clerk $100 after discovering that he had won.

Authorities dug up Khan’s body in February looking for more clues, but said it was too badly decomposed to give them a fresh lead.

Then there are the winners who take the swelling of their bank account in stride.

Cindy and Mark Hill of Missouri won half of a $587.5 million jackpot in November of 2012 – and by all accounts managed to keep their cool despite their sudden riches.

“I called my husband and told him, ‘I think I am having a heart attack,’” Cindy said at the time, according to a Missouri Powerball press release. “I think we just won the Lottery!”

They pocketed a cool $136.5 million after taxes, but as of earlier this year they hadn’t let their eyes fill with dollar signs according to an article that caught up with the fortunate duo in February.

The nouveau riche Hills paid for a new fire station and baseball field in their hometown of Camden Point, Mo., Mayor Kevin Boydston told Reuters. They gave another $50,000 toward a sewage treatment plant for local residents, he told the news agency.

“I’ve said all along that these lottery winnings could not have gone to a better couple,” Boydston said. “They are giving back to the community, just like they said they would.”

The couple’s fiscal good sense gave Mark Hill’s mom reason to brag, beyond the fact that her boy was a newly minted millionaire.

“I’m real proud of them,” Shirley Hill told Reuters. “They have stayed grounded. That’s their nature.”

Related:

• Powerball jackpot soars to $600 million
• Winner of the $338 million Powerball jackpot owes $29,000 in child support
• Powerball winners introduced to the nation: 'We're still stunned by what happened'

If you have two bucks and a dream, Powerball has a game for you.

The jackpot of the multi-state lottery game has surged to $600 million ahead of Saturday's drawing -- the second-largest pot in U.S. lottery history.

In the drawing in the 43-state game at 10:59 p.m. ET Saturday, the winning numbers were 10, 13, 14, 22, 52 and Powerball 11.

The estimated jackpot surpasses Powerball's previous record set in November 2012, when the jackpot jumped to $587.5 million before two winners split the prize.

The largest jackpot ever claimed was a $656 million Mega Millions prize split three ways in March. 

The estimated cash value of Saturday's drawing, should a winner choose to be paid in one lump sum, now stands at $376.9 million -- before taxes, of course.

Erik S. Lesser / EPA

A customer purchases Powerball and Mega Millions lottery tickets at a store in Decatur, Ga. The combined jackpots of the games are estimated at $800 million.

Nope, you didn't win. 

There was no Powerball winner in Wednesday night's drawing for the $360 million jackpot, the third-largest prize ever, Sue Dooley, an official with the Multi-State Lottery association said. 

Nati Harnik / AP

Parker Adair works the Powerball machine at a Baker's supermarket in Omaha, Neb., on Wednesday.

The next drawing will be Saturday May 18 for a grand prize of $475 million. 

The winning numbers for the jackpot were 02-11-26-34-41, with Powerball 32.

Powerball tickets are sold in 43 states.

The biggest jackpot ever totaled $587.5 million. That unbelievable sum was split between two tickets on Nov. 28. New Jersey resident Pedro Quezada won the fourth-largest Powerball prize ever in March, taking home a $338 million jackpot.

If you couldn't match these numbers, you might not be totally out of luck. A game redesign last year made such gargantuan prizes more common and raised the price of a ticket to $2.

There’s a one in 175.2 million chance of anyone's winning the grand prize, according to Powerball.

This story was originally published on Wed May 15, 2013 11:18 PM EDT

Chris O'meara / AP, file

This Nov. 28, 2012, file photo shows a customer at a 7-Eleven convenience store with a Powerball ticket in Tampa, Fla.

A lucky winner could take home one of Powerball's largest jackpots on Wednesday night as the prize rose to an estimated $360 million dollars.

That makes it the third largest Powerball jackpot in at least a decade. Lottery officials have said that such stratospheric payouts will become more common as a result of a redesign last year. Those changes were intended to produce bigger jackpots faster, and raised the price of a ticket to $2.

“It usually took a handful of months, if not several months, for a jackpot to reach this large amount,” Iowa Lottery spokeswoman Mary Neubauer told the Associated Press. “Now it’s achieving that within a handful of weeks. I think the redesign is achieving exactly what we had wanted it to achieve, which is the bigger, faster-growing jackpot.”

Powerball tickets are sold in 43 states. The biggest Powerball jackpot ever totaled $587.5 million and was split between two tickets on Nov. 28. New Jersey resident Pedro Quezada won the fourth largest Powerball prize ever in March, taking home a $338 million jackpot.

While odds of getting rich quick remain slim, more players are likely to take home a smaller prize by matching fewer numbers. And for those who miss tonight's jackpot can take consolation: the Mega Millions jackpot rolled over to $190 million Tuesday night. The next drawing of that game comes Friday.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Related:

• Nobody wins: Powerball jackpot jumps to $350 million
• 'I felt pure joy': New Jersey Powerball winner confirmed

Julio Cortez / AP file

Pedro Quezada, the winner of the Powerball jackpot, holds up a promotional check during a news conference at the New Jersey Lottery headquarters.

Pedro Quezada claimed the fourth-largest Powerball jackpot in history on Tuesday – and now the Passaic County Probation Department wants a slice.

The 44-year-old former bodega owner owes $29,000 in child support and has an outstanding warrant in his name, according to a statement issued by Passaic County Sheriff Richard Berdnik.

Quezada pulled the lucky numbers to rake in the $338 million jackpot.

“The Sheriff’s Office Warrant Squad is attempting to notify Mr. Quezada about the issue in an effort to have it resolved in a timely manner,” the statement read. “Because of Mr. Quezada’s large winnings, generally the New Jersey Division of Lottery would satisfy the judgment before all of the winnings are released.”

The lottery winner “is subject to potential arrest” until he satisfies the warrant, according to the sheriff’s statement.

A father of five and native of the Dominican Republic, Quezada said at a press conference Tuesday that much of his newfound pile would go to his family. It's not clear how his child support payments might change to reflect his winnings.

“My family is a very humble family and we’re going to help each other out,” the freshly minted millionaire said as he was presented with a giant yellow check.

The New Jersey man turned in his lucky ticket at Eagle Liquor in his home town of Passaic. He often went to the store after work to grab a couple of beers. 

Related:

• 'I felt pure joy': New Jersey Powerball winner confirmed
• Powerball mystery: Officials say winner has yet to claim big prize
• Woman sits out office Powerball pool – and coworkers win

Taimy Alvarez / South Florida Sun Sentinel

A group of workers at Keller Willams Partners Realty in Plantation, Fla., are won $1 million Saturday night in the Powerball drawing.

It’s a lottery nightmare: You decide not to kick in for the office Powerball pool — and your coworkers strike it rich.

It happened at a real estate agency in Florida. Jennifer Maldonado, who started working at the firm two weeks ago and had yet to receive a paycheck, opted out of the $20 buy-in because she was watching her money. She showed up for work Sunday to find the rest of the office screaming, hugging and crying.

They had won $1 million — about $83,000 apiece before taxes.

“I knew I was the only one who hadn’t put in the money, so I thought they were pranking me and going out of their way to make me feel something,” Maldonado told The Miami Herald. “My boss sat down and said this was real.”

But the 12 coworkers at Keller Williams Partner Realty in Plantation who won are giving her a break. They won’t say how much, but they have decided to cut Maldonado, an administrative assistant, in on the winnings.

“As a team we put together a fat pile of money,” Laurie Finkelstein Reader, head of the office real estate agents, told the Herald. “If we do the right thing and always care about other people, the right thing will happen to us.”

The office pool bought 120 tickets. They didn’t win the $338 million grand prize — that went to a convenience store owner in New Jersey — but they did match five numbers: 17, 29, 31, 52 and 53. It takes five plus the Powerball to hit the jackpot.

They almost didn’t win at all. Finkelstein Reader bought the tickets at a 7-Eleven in Pembroke Pines, and the clerk, who spoke only Spanish, thought she wanted $120 worth of tickets, 60 at $2 a pop, instead of 120 tickets.

As Finkelstein Reader explained the misunderstanding, an angry line formed behind her. One man skipped to another line and bought a bunch of tickets. Finally, Finkelstein got her second batch of 60 tickets.

The winning ticket was in that second batch.

The group, which held one of 13 tickets nationwide to win $1 million, will pick up its winnings Wednesday. And next time they get together to enter the lottery, Maldonado says she’s in.

“I didn’t realize how lucky they are,” she said.

This story was originally published on Wed Mar 27, 2013 9:35 AM EDT