A flurry of last-minute ticket buying pushed a Mega Millions lottery jackpot in the US to $636 million ($A711 million) on Tuesday, putting it just shy of the all-time record, lottery officials said.

With the majority of Mega Millions tickets typically purchased the day of the drawing, lottery officials had expected a surge of activity. That frenzy now has the Tuesday drawing within striking distance of the record $656 million ($A733 million) haul set in March 2012. Under the Mega Millions system, winners can take that amount over a set time, or a cash payout option which now stands at $341 million ($A381 million).

Paula Otto, Virginia's lottery director, who heads the multi-state Mega Millions game, told CBS that if no one won the draw, the jackpot could very well pass the $1 billion ($A1.1 billion) mark by Christmas Eve.

"We had predicted last week that if we are still on the same roll on Christmas Eve," she said, "we'll definitely be over a billion."

At Dick's Liquor in Koreatown, Los Angeles, clerk Jose Bachez said many of his customers had caught the Mega Millions fever. One spent about $50 alone.

But the fantasy of hitting it big is too much for some to resist.

"The dream of winning is fun … you know, until you don't match any of the numbers," Phill Kaplan, 30, of Denver told the Los Angeles Times. "But then again, the chance that you could win is the reason I buy tickets."

The game is played in 43 US states as well as the District of Columbia and the US Virgin Islands.

LA Times