Powerball Players Feverish

Rushing To Get In On Drawing With Record $365M Payoff

(CBS)  All that stands between you and Easy Street is six little numbers. The hard part is picking them.

The winning combination for Saturday night's Powerball jackpot is worth a staggering $365 million. That's the biggest lottery jackpot in North American history, eclipsing the $363 million payoff for the Big Game, the forerunner of Mega Millions. That one was won by two ticket holders, in Illinois and Michigan, in 2000.

CBS News Correspondent Randall Pinkston immersed himself the latest lottery frenzy in one Powerball state when he ventured to the Connecticut town of Greenwich.

He noted the odds of winning Powerball are put at one-in-146 million.

But those slim odds aren't stopping millions of Americans from chasing a $365million dollar dream.

"It's a lotta money, lotta money," one ticket buyer said.

Pinkston spotted one man shelling out $100 for tickets.

And Kathy Sevos, of Bayside, in the New York City borough of Queens, drove al the way to Greenwich to take her shot, since New York doesn't have Powerball.

She says she once drew five of the six numbers needed to win the lottery.

"It was good for five figures, and it covered more than I ever spent," she says.

The trick, of course, is selecting the correct numbers, and every veteran player has a technique.

Jay Hida of Hawthorne, N.J. doesn't do quick picks and instead plays "birthdays and anniversaries."

But however you play the game, Pinkston says, you absolutely must believe.

"This is the winning ticket," one woman told him, smiling.

Pinkston begged to differ, kiddingly displaying several tickets he'd bought and saying one of them is the winner.