The three winning tickets of the grand $564 million Powerball jackpot have been traced to North Carolina, Texas and Puerto Rico, but five second-place $1 million tickets were sold in New York and New Jersey.
Those winners missed sharing the fifth largest Powerball jackpot by a single number.
Jimmy Iqbal didn't win a dime in Powerball, but he couldn't contain his joy Thursday. He sold one of those $1 million-winning tickets at his Hauppauge food mart on Long Island.
"I feel so excited! I felt like I won," he said.
And the Singh brothers in Port Jefferson Station sold another at their 7-Eleven store.
"Everybody said, 'Congratulations, your store won! Lucky store!'" said Nick Singh.
At both stores, plenty of customers wished they'd gotten that close to the Powerball.
Local
"Somebody's very lucky," said Sheri Ruiz, who admitted she wasn't very happy.
"Oh well, maybe next time," sighed Kevin Thomas.
The identities of the grand Powerball winners remain a mystery, and so far, so are the names of the local $1 million winners.
In the meantime, it appears the lottery dream never dies: both Long Island stores were doing brisk business selling more tickets Thursday.
