"High-stakes games are just exploding in popularity," said Cushard, who teamed with rock singer Meatloaf on a baseball fantasy team this year. "It's a chance to challenge yourself against the best of the best. These tournaments are the ultimate arena when it comes to fantasy sports."

Cushard was planning to compete in a National Fantasy Football Championship in Las Vegas last week that was to pay out $250,000 in total prize money. He's among 224 participants who have paid $1,250 each to draft a team of National Football League players that scores points based on statistics.

Owners of fantasy teams "draft" their players from NFL clubs and field a roster each week, usually with a quarterback, two running backs, two wide receivers, a tight end, a place-kicker and an NFL team's defense. A fantasy team earns points based on the statistics its players compile, such as yardage and touchdowns scored. Each week, a fantasy owner plays another team in his league and the winner is determined by points scored.

More than 15 million people in the United States played fantasy sports last year, including 12 million in fantasy football, according to a survey conducted by the Fantasy Sports Trade Association. Many are in free leagues available on the Internet, or in leagues with friends and associates with entry fees in the range of $10 to $100 and total payouts of $100 to $1,000.

Alex Kaganovsky, a 36-year-old husband and father who owns a medical supplies business in Brooklyn, N.Y., has spent close to $5,000 for fantasy teams this year. He's participating next Sunday in the World Championship of Fantasy Football in Las Vegas — an event that has a $1,450 entry fee and a $200,000 grand prize.

Like many fantasy sports participants, Kaganovsky started playing free leagues on the Internet. He joined money leagues about five years ago and recently made the jump to high-stakes games. While most players say they thrive on the competition of fantasy sports, Kaganovsky said the gambling is the biggest draw for him.

"The money made it that much more interesting," said Kaganovsky, who spends three to four hours a day doing research for his fantasy teams. "It's definitely time-consuming, but it's not work, it's a hobby."

Glenn Karrant, a 45-year-old financial planner for Mellon Financial Corp., calls fantasy football his passion.

"I live it, breathe it, sleep it," said Karrant, who is married, has a 3-year-old son and lives in Plantation, Fla. "I spend a lot of time on it, much to my spouse's regret. But I'm not a gambler, I'm a family man. I hardly spend any money on myself, so (my wife) didn't disagree with what I've spent on fantasy sports."

For Karrant, the allure of the high-stakes fantasy leagues is the competition. He said he has spent up to two hours a day during the past several months preparing for his draft.

Last Monday, he spent part of his morning at work trying to figure out if running back Chris Brown will get significant opportunity to score touchdowns for the Tennessee Titans after Eddie George's off-season departure.

"The money would be great, the icing on the cake," he said in an interview. "But to say I beat all my peers would be the ultimate. I want to put what I've learned to the test."

Greg Ambrosius, who runs the National Fantasy Football Championship, said he envisions a time when fantasy drafts are televised to a national audience.

Ambrosius, the editor of Fantasy Football Magazine, said there are similarities to the World Series of Poker, an event where the grand prize rose to $5 million from $1.5 million in five years.

"It's the kind of thing where everyone who is drafting a fantasy team this weekend would watch and say, 'Boy, I could win that $100,000,' " said Ambrosius. "It's the ultimate armchair sport where everybody feels they're smarter than the next guy."

With the surge in popularity of high-stakes leagues — there were only two last year with a first prize of at least $100,000 — Ambrosius said there's more of a risk that leagues will fold.

Payday Sports planned to award $1 million to its overall winner this year, but reduced its first prize to $100,000 after getting only 60 players instead of the 600 it wanted to pay $3,600 for a team.

"Maybe America is not quite ready for that yet, at least not at the volume we were looking at," said Dave Cella, the president of Payday Sports. "But there's definitely a market.

"Fantasy football is not going away. It's getting bigger and bigger."

The NFL hasn't missed the opportunity, either. The league had 1.3 million people play its fantasy football games last season on NFL.com, according to Neilsen Media Research Inc.

The NFL, which bans players and all other employees from betting on its games, doesn't consider fantasy football gambling since it doesn't involve direct wagers on the outcome of games, Commissioner Paul Tagliabue has said.

Paul Sidikman says the $1,250 entry fees for the high stakes games are about as high now as he's willing to go. A former vice president for Citigroup Inc.'s Citibank, Sidikman is entering the New York draft this weekend after traveling to Las Vegas the past three years.

The 59-year-old said he doesn't have any illusions of winning the grand prize, but feels he has a good chance to win his 12-team league. Sidikman's team would have to finish in the top four in his league to make the playoffs, and then win two head-to-head matchups to take the title and $5,000.

If he does, Sidikman might buy something nice for his wife, who he says "doesn't have the foggiest" idea of how fantasy football works.