The BBC's Eileen Whelan reports: "American dreaming"

Gamblers are queuing for up to six hours to place their bets in the 80 million to one hope of striking it rich.

Powerball is played across 20 states and residents in the other 30 are desperate for a crack at the quarter billion dollar prize.

Charles Strutt, executive director of the Multi-State Lottery Association, said: "They're coming off the beaches, they're coming out of the woods to get tickets."

Powerball mania intensified after nobody won the $183m jackpot on Saturday.

Pessimists point out the chances of winning as likely as guessing President Bill Clinton's phone number.

They say you are more likely to:

• Be struck by lightening - twice
• Be eaten by a shark
• Hit two consecutive holes in one

The only answer is "if you're not in it you definitely won't win it".

And Powerball officials have projected that there is a 90% chance that Wednesday's drawing will produce a winner.

Finally got a ticket: Now they can only wait

Players snapped up 45 million tickets across the United States on Monday, Mr Strutt said.

Connecticut was the busiest Powerball state, with 9.3 million tickets sold on Monday, followed by Delaware with 5.9 million and Indiana with 4.8 million.

In Connecticut, Greenwich was proving a magnet for players from New York and New Jersey.

Many mistakenly thought the border town was the only one in the state selling the tickets.

Some of the city's 40 Powerball outlets had lines of 500 people and waits of up to six hours.

Greenwich Police Chief Peter Robbins said they had made several arrests for public order offences and that traffic accidents had tripled.

He said: "This is the worst thing I've ever seen, and I've been here for 28 years."

In other states tickets are selling at 12 times the normal rate.

Small start

Powerball began as an attempt by smaller states to compete with lotteries held in large states.

It has become a household name and appears to have succeeded in its original aim.

Many New Yorkers are ignoring their own state lottery, which has a $40 million jackpot, and in Ohio people are playing Powerball in neighbouring Indiana.