If Sergio Castañeda hits the jackpot and wins the $196 million prize in Tuesday'drawing of the Mega Millions lottery game, he knows the first thing he would do.

"I'm going to help all of my relatives because it is important to help your people," said the 45-year-old while buying five of the lottery tickets at a Chula Vista liquor store.

Afterward, he said he would pursue his life-long dream: Openinga Mexican restaurant.

"I would never stop working; instead, I would even go into the kitchen and become a chef and I would work daily," said a smiling Castañeda, an immigrant from Zacatecas who works as a windows installer.

Castañeda and tens of thousands of people like him will try to win the Mega Millions jackpot, an interstate lottery that has drawings every Tuesday and Friday in 42 states.

Although a huge amount, the $196 million jackpot is less than the $336 million prize won by two people in 2009, one in California, or the $266 million that another state resident won earlier this year.

The winner will have two options: be paid in 26 annual payments, or in a lump sum, which after taxes, comes out to $124 million.

"Once it's over the $100 million mark, it is considered a big prize," said Elias Dominguez, spokesperson for the California Lottery.

In California, around 37 percent of lottery players are Latino, said Dominguez, generally proportional to the Latino population in California.

Alvaro Rosales, manager at a 7-Eleven in Chula Vista, said that between 70 and 80 percent of the costumers who buy lottery tickets in his store are Latino, however.

Pedro Hernandez, manager at Broadway Liquor in Chula Vista, said that players are the usual customers who can spend up to $50 per week in tickets.

Hernandez said that Tuesday, a few hours before the 8 p.m. drawing, he expects a long-line of last-minute ticket-buyers.

Castañeda said that each week he spends –or "invests," as he calls it-- $100 in the Mega Millions, Super Lotto and Scratchers games.

"I have the hope that one day I will hit the jackpot," said Castañeda, who has won up to $200 at a time.

The same hope entices Carmen Romo, 66, to buy lottery tickets week after week.

"It's not wrong to dream," she said, smiling. "Like they say, ‘If you don't play, you can't win.'"

Romo said that just like her brother, who won a million dollars in the California Lottery almost a decade ago, she would also help her family if she wins the $196 million.

The most she's ever won was $1,600 in Super Lotto back in 2002.

"That's how the lottery is," she said. "You lose some, but later you win here and there, five, 20 dollars."