By now you might have caught the Powerball Lottery fever (I mean, come on!) and bought a few tickets for your chance to win around $1.4 billion (R25 billion) in tonight’s draw HERE. But if you don’t get all the numbers you need – I mean, look at your chances – there’s still hope to get something out of playing the game.

Last week’s lotto draw had over 18 million players win a combined total of $159.1 million (R2.6 billion). Of the 18 million peeps, 28 of them won $1 million – and they were all just one number away from taking home the whole pot. Here’s a rundown of how it works:

Players have to select 6 total numbers in the hopes that all 6 match the randomly drawn numbers. Then they get the grand prize. As USA Mega explains, “You select five distinct numbers between 1 and 69, and one ‘Powerball’ number between 1 and 26.”

And the odds of winning the second prize? 1 in 11 688 053. Casual.

One such winner was Joe Watson who wound up with $670 000 (R 11 million) after taxes. I wouldn’t complain.

[source: techinsider]