DALTON, Ga. (AP) – At least two people bought winning tickets for a record $390 million lottery prize, one of which was sold at a convenience store surrounded by carpet mills in the self-proclaimed “Carpet Capital of the World.”

A second winning ticket for the largest jackpot in U.S. history was sold at a liquor store in southern New Jersey.

No one had come forward to claim shares of the Mega Millions prize at midday Wednesday, but both states expected to hear from the winners soon.

“I’m sure it’s going to be somebody we know,” said Rachel Gentry, assistant manager of the Favorite Market gas station. “We hope it’s one of our customers who come in regular.”

The winning ticket sold in New Jersey was traced to Campark Liquors in Woodbine.

“It’s the most wonderful thing,” said Campark manager Fern Gandy. “We have so many wonderful customers here. I’m just glad it was one of them.”

The other 10 states in the Mega Millions game also struck out, lottery officials said.

The winning numbers: 16-22-29-39-42, with the Mega Ball 20.

The odds of hitting it: about 1 in 176 million.

According to New Jersey Lottery officials, the annuity value of the ticket is $195 million and the cash option is $116.5 million, but that’s before a federal tax of 25 percent. New Jersey does not tax lottery winnings but Georgia does.

Connie Sexton, who has managed Favorite Market for 15 years, said it sold about 100 Mega Millions tickets on Tuesday alone, and most of its tickets are sold to carpet mill employees.

Lottery officials said the store will get $25,000 for selling a winning ticket.

The winning numbers were announced Tuesday night in New York’s Times Square, where the 12 participating Mega Millions states agreed to move the drawing from Atlanta after the jackpot hit $355 million Monday. Even though the temperature was just 16 degrees, a handful of hopefuls showed up in Times Square to watch the drawing.

Millions of others had lined up at lottery agents in 12 states to buy tickets Tuesday. New Yorkers bought more than 1 million tickets an hour, said Robert McLaughlin, the state’s lottery director. Virginia retailers sold about 8,550 tickets per minute.

Sales of Mega Millions tickets in California usually average about $7 million. In the last few days, nearly $40 million worth were sold, he said. On Tuesday alone, California sold $27 million in tickets.

Some lottery hopefuls in Ohio never had a chance. Ohio’s system went down statewide about 10:20 p.m. Tuesday, 25 minutes before the deadline, Cohen said. The cause hadn’t yet been determined.

“For those people who wanted to make a wager and didn’t get a chance, we’re very, very sorry,” she said.

The largest previous multistate lottery jackpot was $365 million in 2006, when eight workers at a Nebraska meat processing plant hit the Powerball lotto. The Big Game lotto, the forerunner of Mega Millions, paid out a $363 million jackpot in 2000.

Mega Millions tickets are sold in California, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Texas, Virginia and Washington state.

—

Associated Press writers Karen Matthews in New York; Lisa Cornwell in Cincinnati; Larry O’Dell in Richmond, Va.; and Solvej Schou in Los Angeles contributed to this story.

—

On the Net:

Mega Millions:

http://www.megamillions.com

AP-ES-03-07-07 1652EST