Changes Mega Millions has been heralding for months will take effect with Tuesday’s drawing, and include larger starting jackpots, better odds — and pricier tickets.
Jackpots will not only start higher but also grow faster, Mega Millions said last month. The bigger prizes will be across the board, at “every non-jackpot prize tier,” Mega Millions said. It all goes into effect with the 11 p.m. drawing April 8.
Mega Millions said the changes are in response to players’ wishes. They were first announced in October 2024 as a way to motivate buyers by making prizes more accessible.
“Beyond big jackpots, players told us they want bigger non-jackpot prizes, and that’s exactly what this new game delivers,” Joshua Johnston, lead director of the Mega Millions Consortium, said in a statement last month.
“Players who had won $2 in the old game will now take home $10, $15, $20, $25 or $50 under this game,” Johnston said. “Those who had won $500 under the old rules will now take home $1,000; $1,500; $2,000; $2,500 or $5,000 in this new game. Non-jackpot prizes at every level are going up by 2X to 10X.”
This holds true for “every single drawing,” he noted.
Removing one gold Mega Ball from the game will improve overall odds from 1:23 to 1:24, the lottery consortium said. Jackpot odds increase from one in about 302.5 million to one in 290.5 million. In addition the Megaplier, which used to cost an extra dollar in some jurisdictions, will be built-in rather than chosen separately. The current jackpot, since nobody won on Friday, stands at $54 million, with a $25.7 million lump-sum option.
The jackpot for matching five white balls plus the gold Mega Ball will reset to $50 million after every win; until now it has reset to $20 million. Under the new system, the average jackpot will be more than $800 million as opposed to the current $450 million, the consortium said. Matching five white balls without the Mega Ball, which used to generate a $1 million prize, will now pay out between $2 million and $10 million, according to CNBC’s calculations.
The minimum prize will be $10 in the new game, meaning that a $5 win will automatically double. Until now the lowest prizes have matched the $2 ticket price, so the best anyone could do was break even. A full prize matrix is available for download.
The change that will be the most immediate and obvious is the price. Tickets are going up from $2 per game to $5, a 2.5-fold increase, though the CEO of Jackpot.com, which sells Mega Millions tickets in several states, told CNN, “While some customers may initially be surprised, we believe they’ll come to recognize the added benefits that this price increase enables.”
With News Wire Services
