A lucky lottery player could strike it big this weekend, as both the Mega Millions and Powerball jackpots have climbed above $400 million apiece.































Friday night’s Mega Millions drawing has a top prize of $405 million, with a lump sum option worth nearly $295 million, while Saturday’s Powerball jackpot stands at $457 million, with a lump sum option of more than $331 million.































To win either of those prizes, someone would have to beat staggering odds. The odds of winning the Mega Millions jackpot are one in 302.5 million, according to the lottery game, while Powerball’s odds are one in 292.2 million for the top prize.































Many lottery players employ tactics that they think (or hope) will improve their chances of winning, from playing every single week, to using \"lucky\" numbers like a birthday to playing the same numbers every time in the hopes that they’ll eventually be selected, to only using Quick Pick, where lottery machines automatically select a group of numbers.































But there’s a difference between what people think will work and what is actual mathematical probability.































In fact, there is only one proven way of boosting your chances to win the lottery, according to Harvard statistics professor Dr. Mark Glickman: Your odds only improve by buying more tickets for each game, he previously told CNBC Make It. fishhunter