The Powerball game paid off big for many Powerball players across the nation last night, including three players from New Hampshire. Raymond West, 58, of Pembroke, won $500,000, and players from Portsmouth and Franklin each won $100,000 in the March 30 Powerball drawing. The two $100,000 winners have yet to come forward to claim their prizes.

According to Rick Wisler, executive director of the New Hampshire Lottery, this is the second time a New Hampshire player who Power Played their Powerball ticket was able to "super charge" their prize and increase their winnings from the second-place prize of $100,000 to $500,000.

"It was quite a night for Powerball players all over the U.S. last night, with the $25.5 million Powerball jackpot being won in Tennessee, 21 tickets sold were worth $500,000, and an additional 89 tickets won $100,000!" said Wisler. "This is a record number of prize wins since 1997, and we couldn't be more pleased that our New Hampshire players were able to receive some of that prize money!"

The three New Hampshire retailers who sold the winning tickets were: Lavallee's Market in Suncook ($500,000 ticket); Hannaford's in Portsmouth ($100,000 ticket); and Big Apple in Franklin ($100,000).

West comes into Lavallee's Market on a regular basis, so it was nice to see a regular win the lottery, said Pat Fowler, a coowner of Lavallee's Market.

"I think this is probably our highest one," she said.

The third-generation family store has had some high instant sweepstakes winners as well.

A native of Massachusetts and a resident of New Hampshire for the past dozen or so years, West was accompanied to New Hampshire Lottery headquarters in Concord the morning of March 31 by his dog, a Pomeranian mix named Muffy. West, who has played his winning numbers for some time, is in the process of building a new home in Webster. According to West, now he can build a bigger home and fill it with lots of furniture.

"We're delighted to celebrate a half-million dollar prize for Raymond West of Pembroke who took a chance on a Power Play and won big!" said Wisler. "The winning numbers on the ticket would have pulled in a $100,000 prize, but because he bet an additional $1 and the Power Play number turned out to 5, he won $500,000 instead!"

The winning numbers from the March 30 drawing were 22- 28-32-33-39, PB - 42. Power Play number was 5. In addition to the jackpot winner, 306,126 other Powerball players across the nation won $21,709,536 million in cash prizes.