Three $1 million Powerball winning tickets were sold to two people in New Hampshire, according to lottery officials.

The winning tickets for Wednesday night's drawing had five of the six numbers (not the Powerball) and were sold in Portsmouth and Nashua.

One person bought a ticket at the Cabot Street Market in Portsmouth with two winning numbers on it. Maura McCann, marketing director for the lottery, explained the buyer played the same five numbers on both tickets but with different Powerball numbers.

The other winning ticket was purchased at Main Dunstable Shell in Nashua.

“The players chose those numbers,” she said. “They were not easy picks (computer-generated numbers). Obviously, those numbers mean something to someone. That's why they played them.”

The Port City store will receive $20,000 for selling the two winning tickets, and the Nashua store will be paid $10,000.

Cabot Street Market owner Jeff Bell received a phone call from the New Hampshire Lottery Commission first thing on Thursday morning letting him know he had sold the two tickets to the same customer on Monday.

Bell said he feels pretty confident that the winner is a regular customer. The store was “hectic” on Thursday morning, he said, as people came in to check their tickets and buy more.

“We’re the lucky store again,” Bell said.

Bell said the market has been in his family for 32 years, and they are one of the top-selling lottery ticket sellers in the state.

He said they have sold a five-number winning Powerball ticket before, but not such a big jackpot.

McCann said the lottery has not heard from the winners yet, but generally players return to the store where they bought the winning tickets. Lottery officials contacted the stores and asked them to tell the winners to call them.

The three winning tickets in New Hampshire were among 22 tickets across the country that scored all five white balls in Wednesday's drawing. The tickets were sold in 13 states and Washington, D.C. One of the winning tickets sold in Florida scored $2 million by picking all five white numbers plus the Power Play option.

No one picked all six numbers so Saturday night's Powerball jackpot is estimated at $253 million.

The Powerball number drawn was 3 7 11 15 28 and Powerball, 12.

Union Leader correspondent Gretyl Macalaster contributed to this story.