LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- There's word that a recently laid-off fiber optics worker in Kentucky is one of the fortunate few from Saturday night's Powerball drawing.

The Ashland Daily Independent newspaper says that David Edwards (pictured, right) of Westwood holds the ticket sold in that state.

He and the owners of three other winning tickets will share in the nearly $300 million jackpot.

Edwards, 46, is a single father of an 11-year-old girl.

He said that he bought seven tickets in all, hoping to at least win a cut of the $295 million jackpot.

Edwards isn't sure whether to spread his $73,750 million cut over 25 years, or to take the one-time lump sum of almost $41.5 million.

"I'm talking to a tax accountant and a tax lawyer so that I can make the right decisions," Edwards said. "I want this money to not only last me, but generations after me."

Edwards is expected to validate his Powerball ticket in Louisville, Ky. Monday.

Powerball Lottery ticket machines got a workout Saturday as near-record numbers of people bought chances for a $280 million jackpot.

Four of the tickets sold for Saturday night's drawing are big winnners.

The grand-prize-winning tickets were sold in Delaware, Kentucky, Minnesota, and New Hampshire.

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"Somebody's going to get hit by lightning, and somebody's going to win the Powerball," said Pam Hobbs in Sioux Falls, S.D.

The jackpot for Saturday night's drawing in Des Moines, the host of the lottery that is played in 21 states and the District of Columbia, was the second-highest in Powerball history and the third-largest lottery jackpot ever in the United States.

The winning Powerball numbers were 8-17-22-42-47 and Powerball 21.

Ticket sales in Iowa were expected to top the sales figure on Wednesday, when the jackpot hit $200 million and the state's 1,600 lottery machines cranked out tickets at an average of one a minute, lottery officials said.

"I just hope someone wins soon," said Delicia Thompson, a cashier at a U-Stop Convenience Shop in Lincoln, Neb. "You can't get anything done besides Powerball. When I get off work, I just go to bed. I'm too tired to do anything."

Lottery hopefuls from non-Powerball states streamed into Connecticut from north, west and south - eastern neighbor Rhode Island has its own Powerball sales - arriving by car, commuter trains from New York City and ferry boats from New York's Long Island.

However, lines were not as bad as expected in Greenwich, Conn., which suspended ticket sales for a day on Friday because of the mob scenes it has experienced during previous Powerball frenzies.

Bill and Jen Molloy of Rockaway Beach, N.Y., had to wait only a few minutes in Greenwich to buy $40 worth of the $1 tickets. "We figured everyone would think Greenwich would be closed today, so we figured 'Let's try it'," Jen Molloy said.

On Main Street in Fond du Lac, Wis., which has gained a reputation as a "Miracle Mile" for producing at least five big winners since 1994, Ma & Pa's Grocery Store set up a ticket machine outside for drive-up service. Inside, people started lining up at 5 a.m.

"We're just nuts down here," said Pat Moses, who owns Ma & Pa's, which sold a $500,000 winning ticket in November.

The odds of winning are one in 80 million, but that didn't stop customers from driving 250 miles from Austin, Texas to pick up tickets in Louisiana, said Altaf Muhammad, a vendor in Logansport.

"It's crazy, I'm telling you. I don't even have time to count the money," said Muhammad, who brought in an extra employee Saturday to sell thousands of $5 quick pick tickets to customers in line.

Louisiana Lottery President Randy Davis said officials got several calls Friday from Florida and Texas residents who planned to fly into the New Orleans airport to buy Powerball tickets, and wanted to know the name of the nearest retailer.

The biggest Powerball jackpot ever is the $295.7 million won in 1998 by a group of factory workers in Ohio. The richest lottery prize in U.S. history is the $363 million Big Game jackpot, won last year by two players in Illinois and Michigan.

Now that a winning ticket has been sold for the huge jackpot, players in Wednesday night's game will be vying for a somewhat smaller prize: $10 million, paid as a 25-year annuity, or $5.6 million paid as a lump sum.