What you need to know to play the game.

On Wednesday, Florida becomes the 43rd state to offer Mega Millions. The game joins Powerball and five other Florida games in which patrons select numbers to be drawn: Florida Lotto, Fantasy 5, Mega Money, Play 4 and Cash 3. About 60 scratch-off games are available at any time, and make up about 58 percent of all lottery sales in Florida.

Mega Millions and Powerball are played in every state, plus theU.S. Virgin Islands and the District of Columbia, except Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Mississippi, Alabama, Alaska and Hawaii. So when the jackpots get large, friends from those states might ask you to buy tickets for them.

While both games can make you wealthy, Mega Millions and Powerball are slightly different. Here is an investor’s guide.

MegaMillions vs. Powerball

CHRISTIAN GOODEN/MCT MotoMart assistant manager Darla Beckette posts a symbolic Mega Millions check after the Red Bud, Ill., store sold one of three winning tickets to the largest jackpot ever, $656 million on March 30, 2012.