How about $1.7 billion in your stocking for Christmas? Powerball’s 46 straight draws with no winner bring Yuletide greetings

A Christmas Eve Powerball drawing could add new meaning to holiday cheer as millions of players hope to cash in on the $1.7 billion prize, which comes after months without a jackpot winner. The United States’ 4th-largest jackpot on record comes after 46 consecutive draws without someone claiming to have all six numbers. The last contest with a jackpot winner was on Sept. 6. The game’s long odds have people decking the halls and doling out $2 - and sometimes more - for tickets ahead of Wednesday night’s live drawing. It’s a sign the game is operating as intended. Lottery officials made the odds tougher in 2015 as a mechanism for snowballing jackpots, all the while making it easier to win smaller prizes. The Christmas holiday is not expected to impact the drawing process should there be a winning ticket, a Powerball spokesperson said. Here is what to know about Wednesday’s drawing: Christmas Eve cha-ching That ticket placed in a stocking or under the tree could be worth a billion bucks - but with some caveats. Powerball is played in 45 states, along with Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Most of those areas require players to be 18 or older, though some states have steeper requirements. In Nebraska, players have to be at least 19 years old, and in Louisiana and Arizona, people can’t buy tickets until they are 21. Winning tickets also must be cashed in the states where they were bought. And players can’t buy tickets in Alabama, Alaska, Hawaii, Nevada or Utah. Other than that, lottery officials argue there is a chance a lucky Powerball ticket could be a gift that keeps on giving. Charlie McIntyre, the New Hampshire Lottery’s executive director, said Tuesday: “Just think of the stories you can tell for generations to come about the year you woke up a billionaire on Christmas.” A range of prizes can be presents Wednesday’s $1.7 billion jackpot has a cash value of $781.3 million. A winner can choose to be paid the whole amount through an annuity , with an immediate payment and then annual payments over 29 years that increase by 5% each time. Most winners, however, usually choose the cash value for a lump sum. The odds are high for the top prize, but there are smaller prizes players can reap. At the last drawing, players in Florida, Georgia, Illinois, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Wisconsin each won $1 million. There are also prizes outside the jackpot, ranging from a few dollars to $2 million. One woman told Powerball officials that she already made plans for her $1 million win: “We’re going to pay off our cars and credit cards and get a bigger house!” And Thomas Anderson of Burlington, North Carolina, said he intended to use his $100,000 Powerball win from earlier this month to go back to school, according to Powerball. Long odds for the billion-dollar jackpots Lottery officials set the odds at 1 in 292.2 million in...

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