NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - When a 68-year-old cleaning woman won last week's $294 million Mega Millions jackpot, she joined a select group of people: multi-millionaire lottery players.

The ticket picked by Geraldine Williams of Lowell, Mass., will earn her one of the biggest payouts in U.S. lottery history.

It is also further evidence of the super-sizing trend in lotteries. Prizes have grown so gargantuan that anything less than $100 million looks like chump change.

"Jackpots have definitely increased tremendously," said Jimmy White, a spokesman for the Maryland Lottery. The reason: The emergence over the last decade of the multi-state game.

"When each state had only its own jackpot game, the biggest prizes were in the range of $5 [million] or $10 million," White notes. "Then along came games in which jackpots are fueled by the sales of tickets in many states."

Sadly, though, there's a yin to the big-money yang. While payouts have expanded, the chances of winning have shrunk. According to White, the odds on a big, single-state sweepstakes are about 6 million to 1.

To win Mega Millions, Williams overcame odds of about 135 million to 1. In Powerball, the odds are 120 million to 1.

As any gambler knows, the house is always the biggest winner. So it's no surprise that state governments have taken to lotteries like white on rice.

About 51 percent of Americans buy at least one lottery ticket every year, according to the North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries. What's more, the big payouts are drawing new players.

"People who would never buy otherwise decide they might as well get in the game," White said.

In fact, Jack Whittaker -- the West Virginia man whose $315 million win in 2002 is still the biggest in history -- acknowledged that he only started playing the game after its take crossed the $100 million threshold.

These are heady days for the two consortia running multi-state games. Powerball, based in Iowa, was formed in 1988 and is played in 24 states, plus Washington, D.C. and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Mega Millions, launched in 1995 as the Big Game, has 11 states in its consortium.

Both multi-state games offer a minimum prize of $10 million, and both pay out approximately 50 percent of their revenue to winners. As each consortium grows, obviously, revenue and payout potential rise commensurately.

Up until now, state lottery commissions have had to choose one or the other. Powerball states tend to be smaller. Mega Millions boasts more populous states, including New York, Illinois and Massachusetts.

Super sweepstakes The biggest individual sweepstakes prizes to date. A $363 million Mega Millions prize was shared by two winners. Location  Date  Amount  West Virginia  12/25/02  $315 million  Indiana  7/29/98  $296 million  Massachusetts  4/6/99  $197 million  Wisconsin  5/20/99  $195 million  Maryland  6/20/03  $183 million   Source:  Multi-state Lottery Association

Last year, Mega Millions signed up Texas, after a heated competition with the Powerball people. For its part, Powerball added Vermont to its consortium.

"Vermont opens an interesting new border," said Joe Mahoney, a spokesman for the Multi-state Lottery Association, which runs the game. "People are coming in from Canada, especially Montreal, to buy tickets."

Mega Millions winner Williams has the choice to receive a lump sum payout of $168 million (about $117 million after taxes), or an annuity payment of a pre-tax $11 million a year, paid out in 26 annual increments.

A mother of three and grandmother of 8, Williams has not yet announced which she'll choose. But the lump-sum seems likely.

"Almost everyone takes the up-front payment," says the MSLA's Mahoney.

It's the same with Mega Millions. "The vast majority go for the cash," White said.

Mahoney argued that the annuity is a better choice, at least in the hypothetical.

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"If you were to win $100 million, the cash option might be about $59 million," he estimates. "Taxes get taken out right away, so you start with just over $40 million. There's no way you're going to get a high enough annual return every year to build that up to $100 million over the life of the annuity."

For his part, though, White understands why someone would choose the lump sum payment.

"We never tell people what to do," he says, noting that his business is doling out money, not financial advice. "But most winners would say it's a no-brainer to go for the cash."

Editor's note: This is an updated version of a story that first appeared in 2003.