Chase the Ace in Sydney leaves $1.9M jackpot for next week

A Sydney woman went home with $263,000 Saturday froma Chase the Ace draw, leaving an estimated $1.9 million jackpot for week 45.

Pam Lesnicksaid she was downstairs when her card was drawn at 7:15 p.m.

She left the stage smiling to cheers of support from a large crowd.

"I'm so happy for you," one woman called.

The hugely popular lottery now likely willsurpass last year's Inverness event where the jackpot winner took home $1.7 million.

Organizers live streamedthe event onYouTube and hundreds of people boughttickets.

Thedrawissomething like a 50-50 draw, but instead of winning half the value of the ticket sales, the winning ticket holder receives a smaller cut of the take and a chance to draw the ace of spades from a deck of regular playing cards to win the jackpot.

Half the money raised goes to the organizationbehind the draw, 20 per cent to the weekly winner, and 30 per cent isfunnelledinto the big prize.

There are nowseven cards left in the deck in Sydney's draw.

Crowds have been growing every week and organizers added extra security and an additional venue last weekend to cope with the thousands of people clamouring for tickets.

Tickets are on sale until6 p.mat eight venues in Sydney:

• Ashby Royal Canadian Legion
• Horizon Achievement Centre
• St. Theresa's Parish Hall
• Mayflower Mall
• Grand Lake Road Fire Hall
• Joan Harriss Cruise Pavilion
• New Dawn Centre for Social Innovation
• Sydney Academy

Sydney'sChase the Ace supports theRoyal Canadian Legion, Branch 138 with a portion of these proceeds going toward the Horizon Achievement Centre and the Beyond the Horizon Building Campaign.