Christmas day Powerball lottery reaches $658 million: Everything you need to know as you pick your numbers ahead of the drawing

One lucky person could win the Christmas gift of a lifetime today as the Powerball lottery reaches $638 million and will be drawn tonight.

The jackpot for Monday night's drawing is an estimated $638 million, with a cash prize of $321 million.

Tickets are still on sale today before the drawing at 10:59 PM ET, but cutoff times vary by state, so it's important to check your local time – tickets cost $2 for each game.

According to Powerball, the jackpot has only been won three times on Christmas Day.

The chance of winning the entire amount is only 1 in 292.2 million.

The jackpot has reached £638 million after no one won on Saturday

The most recent Christmas Day win was in 2013, when a player in Missouri claimed a $71.5 million jackpot.

The last time someone won a huge jackpot was in October, when a huge $1.765 billion winning ticket was sold in Southern California. It was the second highest lottery prize of all time.

The largest US lottery jackpot in history was a whopping $2.04 billion, which was won in California on November 8, 2022.

Edwin Castro was the lucky winner who used his fortune to buy luxury real estate in Los Angeles from famous real estate agent Mauricio Umansky.

Now someone else has the chance to become a multi-millionaire on Christmas night.

“This could be a very Merry Christmas for a Powerball player,” said Drew Svitko, president of the Powerball product group.

“It's not often that a Powerball drawing coincides with the Christmas holidays and with a jackpot of this size.”

Powerball is one of the most popular lottery games in the US, with more than 181 million Americans participating every year

Rong Chen, a professor of statistics at Rutgers University, previously told DailyMail.com that while some numbers are drawn more often, that does not mean they are more likely to be drawn.

According to Powerball, the Christmas jackpot is the fourth Powerball jackpot to exceed half a billion dollars this year.

Powerball drawings are held three times a week on Mondays, Wednesdays and Sundays at 10:59 PM EST.

When someone wins the lottery, they usually have two options to claim their prize money.

They either accept a lump sum, which is paid to them immediately, or they claim the full jackpot amount, which is paid to them in annuities over the next thirty years.

Powerball's odds of 1 in 292.2 million are designed to generate large jackpots, with the prizes increasing as they roll over repeatedly if no one wins.

Winnings would be subject to federal taxes, and many states also tax lottery winnings.

Powerball is played in 45 states, as well as Washington, DC, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.

A fascinating study from gambling site CSGO analyzed the most frequently drawn numbers in more than 950 draws between 2015 and 2023

The superstitious may want to avoid choosing certain numbers on their cards.

The number 13 is notoriously unlucky, and new research seems to have confirmed that this is indeed the case when it comes to the Powerball drawing.

A new study has revealed the Powerball numbers most likely (and least likely) to be selected.

Gambling site experts CSGO analyzed the most frequently drawn numbers in more than 950 drawings between 2015 and 2023.

The number 13 is the least common; it was drawn only 51 times in the past eight years, the study found.

However, it was discovered that the number 61 was the 'luckiest' number, as it was chosen 90 times during that period.