As the hype around a Cape Breton community’s Chase the Ace jackpot grows, other charities are hopping on the bandwagon to try their luck at the game.

It began as a local fundraiser in the village of Inverness, N.S., now the game has built up island-wide excitement.

The game is similar to a 50/50 draw, but in this case the winning ticket holder takes just 20 per cent of the weekly pot, but also gets a chance to pull a card from a standard deck. The lucky person who selects the ace of spades will win the jackpot.

This weekend’s jackpot in Inverness is expected to hit $1 million, with $1.2 million worth of tickets already assembled for Saturday’s draw.

The large jackpot has other charitable organizations across the island looking to get a piece of the pie.

In Reserve Mines, next week’s jackpot is an estimated $55,000, with 50 per cent of the winnings going to the local church and fire department.

“There’s not a lot of overhead, it’s just your time and your commitment to it,” says Jackie Murray, organizer of the Reserve game. “So, money wise, you’re not putting a lot of money into it. We started off from zero, we started off from scratch and it built up to this.”

Michael Admond was Wednesday night’s winner in Reserve Mines. Although he didn’t hit the jackpot, he still walked away with thousands of dollars.

“It’s just the craze going on right now. I seen the billboards and signs everywhere, so I thought I’d try my luck,” says Admond. “We have a wedding coming up in three weeks, so it’s definitely going to help out there.”

The chance of actually winning Chase the Ace is greater than playing a national contest. With the game growing, both in popularity and cash, people are flocking to get in on the winning.

“People are more excited to find out someone won $7,000 on this, or $20,000 here, than someone won a tag, because it’s us, it’s not anywhere else. The money is here and it’s staying here,” says Mile Byrne, a Reserve volunteer firefighter.

With just seven cards remaining in the Inverness Chase the Ace game, thousands of players will be hoping luck will be on their side this Saturday when the draw takes place.

With files from CTV Atlantic's Kyle Moore