(Mega Millions)
BOSTON (WBZ-AM) -- The third-largest Mega Millions jackpot ever will be up for grabs at the end of the week.
With no winner in Tuesday night's drawing, the pot continues to grow, and is now estimated at $548 million with an estimated $309.2 million cash option.
"That would be the third-highest jackpot of all time in that game, and the ninth-highest jackpot when you look at both Mega Millions and Powerball," Massachusetts Lottery spokesperson Christian Teja told WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Ben Parker.
Teja said there will be some smaller jackpots drawn tonight.
"Yeah, a mere $282 million for Powerball," he joked. "We also have our in-state MegaBucks Doubler game, people probably remember that game going all the way back to the 80s, but that's at $3.2 million."
He added that there was a time not long ago when $10 or $20 million was considered a huge prize. Not anymore--Teja referred to it as "jackpot fatigue."
"For whatever reason, for a variety of reasons, we've seen the threshold where the real excitement begins is now kind of up to the $300 million mark, even maybe the $4-500 million mark," he said. "We're really anticipating now with the Mega Millions up to $548 million that we should really see a boost in sales here."
The largest jackpot in U.S. history was a Powerball jackpot of $1.58 billion in 2016. A Powerball sold last year in Chicopee was worth more than $750 million.
WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Ben Parker (@radiobenparker) reports