Could we see another lottery fever era soon? Two of America’s biggest lottery games, Mega Millions and Powerball jackpot prizes seem to suggest so. Their pots are $224 million and $304 million respectively. That’s a combined jackpot prize of over five hundred million dollars up for grabs over the next few days.

The jackpots are this big because no one has won either top prize as of late. So, routinely, both the Mega Millions and Powerball jackpot prizes have to grow. However, a couple more successive rolls and we will be talking billions on the line.

Today’s prize, for correctly predicting Mega Millions jackpot winning numbers, is projected to be worth $224 million. This equates to a cash option worth $136.1 million.

On the other hand, Powerball is also climbing sharply and carries a much bigger prize. The next estimated Powerball jackpot drawing is valued at $304 Million. That is a staggering $184.8 million cash option.

However, as flaming as the top prizes are, the actual odds of winning are chillingly slim at best. Many lottery veteran players can attest to that. So, the actual odds are 1 in 302,575,350 million for correctly guessing Friday’s Mega Millions jackpot winning numbers. On the other hand, there are 1 in 292,201,338 million chances for winning the Powerball grand prize.

How To Play Megamillions

Mega Millions tickets cost $2.00 per play.

Players pick six numbers from two separate pools of numbers – five unique numbers from 1 to 70 and one number from 1 to 25. You win the jackpot by matching all six winning numbers in a drawing.

There are a total of nine ways to win a prize in Mega Millions, ranging from the jackpot down to $2.

How to play Powerball

Simply pick five main numbers between 1 and 69 plus one Powerball number between 1 and 26. Powerball tickets cost $2 per play. However, if you choose to include the Power Play feature, it will cost you an extra $1 per play.