At a Shell gas station in Atlanta, where a dozen or so people waited in line, the manager said he had been doing swift business with tickets all day. It was a scene repeated at lottery agents from coast to coast as people clamoured to get in on the action, hoping to win one of the richest prises ever offered by a major US lottery.

The current jackpot ranks as the second-highest in the game’s history behind a $US1.585 billion ($A2.475 billion) top prize in 2016, which was divided among three lucky ticket holders from California, Tennessee and Florida.

If a single ticket holder has the series of numbers selected in the drawing on Monday, the winner can chose to receive either a one-time lump sum of $US497.3 million ($A776.5 million) in cash, or multimillion-dollar annuity payouts stretched over 29 years, according to lottery officials.

The top prize, which will rise even higher if no one holds the lucky numbers on Monday, is also the fifth-largest jackpot for all major lotteries in the United States.

Winners must guess all six lucky numbers including the final Powerball. The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 292.2 million, lottery officials said.

The last time that someone won the Powerball jackpot was on August 3, when a ticket holder from Pennsylvania claimed a $US206 million ($A322 million) prize. Since then, 37 consecutive drawings have produced no grand prize winner.

-AAP