Steve Cannon / AP

Powerball winner Gloria C. MacKenzie, 84, left, leaves the lottery office escorted by her son, Scott Mackenzie, after claiming a single lump-sum payment of about $370.9 million before taxes on June 5, in Tallahassee, Fla.

Before lottery regret and mathematical misunderstanding puts another dent in civility everywhere, know this: It's OK to let a senior citizen step in front of you when buying a ticket. Please, continue being polite to older folks.

When Gloria MacKenzie purchased her $590 million lottery ticket in Florida last month, a much younger woman allowed her to cut in line, according to published reports. Many of those indicated that the woman's random act of kindness cost her $590 million. It didn't. 

Before lottery ticket buyers start boxing out little old ladies at convenience stores everywhere, let's examine this issue from a mathematics point of view. Could letting someone cut in line at the lottery counter hurt your odds of winning? To use the language of statistics, let’s call this the "risk of being nice."

It would feel strange — wistful, certainly — to learn that someone purchased the winning lottery ticket at your store. (It coulda been me!) It would probably plunge you into full-fledged regret to learn the winner was right in front of you, had taken your place in line, and had purchased the same kind of Quick Pick machine-generated lottery ticket you did. (It shoulda been me!) But random acts of kindness are indeed safe, because random numbers don't work that way.

Random means random
Some lottery ticket buyers arrive with a pre-determined set of numbers in their heads — their children's birth dates, perhaps — and purchase tickets with those fixed numbers. Others let the lottery machine generate numbers, called "Quick Pick" in many states.

Even so, Quick Pick numbers could theoretically be generated in batches of, say, 10 million at time, by a central computer, and then doled out to local machines. Or maybe they could be generated 25 at a time in convenience stores, then handed out. If either were true, your place in line certainly would matter.

But it’s not true. Computers are particularly good at generating random numbers, which have been important to computing since the very beginning. Random numbers are needed any time a programmer wants to surprise a user, such as in video games. Even the most basic computing machines have a built-in ability to create fairly random numbers, often utilizing their internal clocks to make them even more random. So every millisecond matters to a random number generator.

In other words, there is no "risk of being nice." Stopping to sneeze before buying a Quick Pick ticket could just as easily cost someone a winning number as trading places in line. 

What's more, every number generated is independent of every number before it. There are no numbers ticked off a master list, leaving you with more limited possibilities. If the odds are 1 in 100,000,001 when you step in line, your odds remain 1 in 100,000,001 when you let someone else step in front of you.

Naturally, lottery administrators don't advertise precisely how their machines work — random number generators aren't perfect, and lotto machines are a constant target for attackers — so we must engage in a little speculation. But plenty of descriptions can be found that suggest that this is the way they work. For example, here's a description from the Texas Lottery's FAQ. 

"The Quick Pick random number generator for our online games has no built-in memory. Once a set of numbers is picked in one play, the random number process starts fresh for the next play. The fact that a number is picked in one play has no influence on the chances of it getting picked in following plays. Each set of numbers generated by the Quick Pick feature is unrelated to any other Quick Pick selection."

(You can almost feel the frustrated mathematician behind this repetitive explanation, no?)

Of course, other factors make the "risk of being nice" flawed logic. People were buying lottery tickets at locations all around the country. In the time it would take to push a little old lady out of line, thousands of people in other locations would "step in front of you."

Powerball isn't a raffle
One can conjure up a game of chance where the "cost of being nice" could be real. A church raffle that sold tickets with sequential numbers might seem to qualify. Imagine you let a senior cut in line, and he bought winning ticket number 1065, leaving you with a worthless 1066 ticket. Of course, if the winning number was truly picked at random, that wouldn't matter, either, but it certainly would "feel" bad. (Note: feelings and mathematics rarely get along very well).

On the other hand, imagine a church raffle with a finite number of tickets, where this little old man bought five, and you could only buy four tickets because the supply was exhausted. By limiting your chances of winning, you have a true "risk of being nice."

Sadly, Powerball has an unlimited supply of tickets for fools with money, so that scenario doesn’t apply.

Lotteries have often been called a tax on the mathematically disinclined, so it's no surprise that math logic can be in short supply when discussing lotteries. After all, anyone using logic would take their investment in lottery tickets and put it to good use — betting on this weekend's Belmont Stakes, for example.

But here's a happy thought. Because both the winning numbers and the Quick Pick numbers are randomly generated, the "reward of being nice" is of equal value to the "risk." That is, you are equally likely to end up with a winning ticket because you let someone step in front of you. Think about that the next time you consider being polite ... doing so could win you $590 million!

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Steve Cannon / AP

Powerball winner Gloria C. Mackenzie, 84, left, leaves the lottery office escorted by her son, Scott Mackenzie, after claiming a single lump-sum payment of about $370.9 million before taxes on June 5, in Tallahassee, Fla.

When Gloria C. MacKenzie went to a Florida supermarket near Tampa last month to buy a Powerball ticket, another person in line did something nice for the 84-year-old widow. 

"While in line at Publix, another lottery player was kind enough to let me go ahead of them in line to purchase the winning Quick Pick ticket," she said in a statement Wednesday. 

The nice gesture turned out to be a life-changing one for MacKenzie and her family. She came forward Wednesday to claim the biggest undivided lottery jackpot in history, $590 million. 

Those polite people in line with MacKenzie turn out to be Mindy Crandell and her 10-year-old daughter, fellow residents of Zephyrhills, Fla., WFTV reports.  

"It was our turn, and the lady turned and looked at me, and I said, 'Go ahead. You can get your ticket. No big deal,'" Crandell told WFTV.

Crandell remembered the exchange in line when a friend texted her McKenzie's photo Wednesday.

"'My daughter said, 'Mom, look, it's the lady that went in front of us,'" said Crandell.

McKenzie is a retiree from Maine and a mother of four who lives in a modest, tin-roof house in Zephyrhills, where the lone winning ticket in the May 18 drawing was sold. She took her prize in a lump sum of just over $370 million. After federal taxes, she is getting about $278 million, lottery officials said. 

Wearing large sunglasses and dressed in a pink sweater and white pants, she clasped her son's arm after visiting the lottery offices as they made their way to a silver Ford Focus and left quickly. She did not speak to a crowd of reporters outside the building. She was accompanied at the lottery offices by two unidentified attorneys. 

MacKenzie bought the winning ticket at a Publix supermarket in the town of about 13,300, which is 30 miles northeast of Tampa. It is best known for the bottled spring water that bears its name — and now, for one of the biggest lottery winners of all time. 
The $590 million was the second-largest lottery jackpot in history, behind a $656 million Mega Millions prize in March 2012, but that sum was split, with three winning tickets. 

MacKenzie let the lottery computers generate the numbers at random. She said she had previously bought four other tickets for the drawing. 

"We are grateful with this blessing of winning the Florida Lottery Powerball jackpot," she said in a statement read by lottery officials.

"We hope that everyone would give us the opportunity to maintain our privacy for our family's benefit." 

The winner had 60 days to claim the prize. Lottery spokesman David Bishop said MacKenzie, her lawyers and her financial adviser spent about two hours going through the necessary paperwork. 

"They had clearly been preparing for this. They took all this time to get everything in order," Bishop said. 

Minutes after the announcement, a dozen reporters in Zephyrhills were camped outside MacKenzie's gray duplex, which backs up to a dirt alley and is across from a cow pasture. 

Neighbors were surprised by her good fortune. 

"She didn't say anything about it. She's so quiet and secluded. She's usually in the house," said James Hill. "I'm very happy for her. It couldn't have happened to a nicer person. She was always pleasant and smiling." 

Another neighbor, Don Cecil, joked, "I hope she gets a better place to live." 

MacKenzie's neighbors offered few details about her life. They said she mostly kept to herself, but they'd seen her take short walks along the street and exchanged pleasantries with her. 

Her house, situated among mostly mobile homes and pre-fabricated houses, has a chain-link fence with a sheet-metal roof and an old TV antenna. 

MacKenzie retired to Zephyrhills more than a decade ago from rural Maine with her husband, Ralph, who died in 2005. 

Back in her hometown of East Millinocket, Maine, relatives and friends were surprised to hear of her good fortune. 

Robert MacKenzie, Ralph's brother, said the couple met just after World War II after Ralph got out of the Navy. He went to work in the town's paper mill, laboring as a technician for almost four decades. 

He said the couple raised four children in East Millinocket, a town of less than 2,000 people in northern Maine. A daughter and son still live in East Millinocket, another son lives in Florida and another daughter lives out of state, possibly in Massachusetts, he said. 
Robert MacKenzie said he didn't know his sister-in-law had won until a reporter called him. 

"Holy mackerel," he said when told of her winnings. He added: "It hasn't soaked in, but I'm happy for her. That would be great because she's a widow and she can have a nice home now." 

One of the MacKenzies' daughters, Melinda "Mindy" MacKenzie, a high school teacher, still lives in the family home in East Millinocket in a quiet middle-class neighborhood of white clapboard houses. 

Ralph MacKenzie enjoyed snowmobiling, hunting and fishing, said Andrew Hopkins, a retired high school teacher and assistant principal who taught some of the MacKenzie children. 

"They were good people. That's about all I can tell you," said Hopkins, who lives across the street. 

Related:

• Winning ticket for huge Powerball jackpot sold in Florida
• Florida city still wondering: Who won the $590m lottery jackpot
• What could happen to you: Tales of big lottery winners

AP file

A Powerball jackpot ticket worth an estimated $590.5 million was sold at this Zephyrhills, Fla., Publix supermarket seen on May 19.

This story was originally published on Wed Jun 5, 2013 3:40 PM EDT

Brian Blanco / Brian Blanco / EPA

The Publix supermarket where the sole winner of the 590.5 million US Dollar Powerball jackpot is reported to have recently purchased their winning-ticket in Zephyrhills, Florida, USA, 19 May 2013.

ZEPHYRHILLS, Fla. — It's been two long weeks since the small city of Zephyrhills learned that a $590 million Powerball ticket was sold at a supermarket here.

No one expected the winner to come forward in the first days after the announcement. After all, curious residents reasoned, the person might need a few days to absorb the shock, or to consult with financial advisers.

But then a week passed, and more, and now folks are so anxious to know the winner's identity they could jump out of their skin.

"Being in a small town, everybody knows everybody and in some cases, everybody's business," said Dave Walters, a longtime reporter at the Zephyrhills News community newspaper. "It's hard to keep a secret in this town, but this is one of the biggest mysteries we've had in a long, long time."

Zephyrhills, population 13,337, is about 30 miles northeast of downtown Tampa. Like many Florida communities, it features a small, old-timey downtown strip where restaurants, gift shops and clothing stores sit under a canopy of oak trees. Around the city's perimeter, there's the suburban sprawl of big box stores. It was in that sprawl, at a Publix supermarket, where the winning ticket was sold.

Rumors were swirling about who the winner could be: Publix deli employees, single moms working at Wal-Mart — even the cousin of a friend of a guy who lived clear in another county.

"Anybody who did not show up for work on that Monday was considered to be the lottery winner," Walters said. "If you had the flu and didn't show up for work, everyone thought you were the lottery winner. If you took a personal day or a sick day, they thought you had won the lottery."

The city is known around the Tampa Bay area for a few things: as the source for bottled spring water, as an area where people like to skydive and as the home to several mobile home parks that cater to the elderly.

Joe Abed, who owns Manolo's Italian restaurant in the historic downtown, thinks the ticket was sold to a senior citizen.

"It's a conspiracy theory," he said, using his hands to make quote marks. "I believe it's a senior citizen that purchased the ticket and they just have no idea that they won the ticket."

Marsha Decena, a Zephyrhills clothing store owner, said she's anxious to find out who won.

"I've heard so many different rumors through town, from it being a 23- or 26-year-old woman to somebody might have washed it in their pocket, the ticket is just lost and they don't know that they won," she said. "It's crazy."

The winner has 60 days from the date of the May 18 drawing to claim a lump-sum payment, and until mid-November to claim annual cash payments.

Zephyrhills resident Don Lawrence thinks the winner is just lining up legal and accounting staff.

"Lost the ticket or something like that? No, I don't think so," he said. "I think somebody's taking their time, doing it the right way."

Newly elected Mayor Danny Burgess — who turned 27 on Saturday — said he hopes it's a resident.

"Just because one person won the lottery, we all feel like we won, that's the kind of community this is," Burgess said. "I absolutely hope for the lottery winner that this is a positive, life-changing event. Only in America can you go to bed with a lottery ticket and wake up a mega-millionaire. I hope that they understand, appreciate and recognize the significance of this."

Abed wonders if the ticket eventually is "just going to go back into the system" so the country can have "another huge lottery."

But that's wishful thinking. According to the Florida Lottery website, if a Powerball jackpot isn't claimed within 180 days from the draw date, "the funds to pay the unclaimed jackpot will be returned to the lottery members in their proportion of sales for the jackpot rollover series."

In other words, state coffers will claim the jackpot, and the people of Zephyrhills will be left to wonder.

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 / 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

Powerball multi-millionaire Pedro Quezada appeared in a New Jersey courtroom on Monday and resolved a $29,000 debt for unpaid child support dating back to 2009.

Quezada, a New Jersey bodega owner whose lucky numbers won him $338 million last week, appeared before a New Jersey superior court judge in Paterson at 1:30 p.m.

A child support warrant against Quezada was temporarily stayed Saturday, a spokesman for the Passaic County Sheriff’s office confirmed to NBC News.

The sheriff's office said last week that Quezada was subject to arrest on the outstanding warrant and that they were "attempting to notify Mr. Quezada about the issue in an effort to have it resolved in a timely manner."

It is unclear which of Quezada’s five children are supposed to be covered by the payments. Quezada claimed a lump sum payment of $221 million, or about $152 million after taxes, last week. Authorities have said the state's Lottery Division typically satisfies child support judgments before paying out winnings.

Quezada is originally from the Dominican Republic and has lived in the United States for 26 years.

A friend of Quezada's told the Daily News that the lottery winner has offered to pay rent for residents of the Passaic neighborhood where his bodega is located for "at least a month or two months."

He told reporters at a press conference Tuesday that he felt "pure joy" about his lottery win and would use a share of his windfall to help his family.