Mega Millions upping price of lottery tickets next year
The cost increase is over 65% per ticket
Playing the Mega Millions lottery will get more expensive in April next year.
The price of a Mega Millions lottery ticket will climb by $3 to $5 at that time, the lottery said in a Monday press release.
The upcoming 150% hike — the second ever for the lottery — will accompany a "new and improved" version of Mega Millions that lottery officials plan to debut in April.
A person plays lottery at a 7-eleven store as Mega Millions jackpot reaches $1 billion 580 million, in Redwood City, California, United States on Aug. 8, 2023. (Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images / Getty Images)
Mega Millions said the "mega overhaul" of the lottery game will result in the size of its jackpots growing more quickly and an increased frequency in large jackpots.
Players will see "larger starting jackpots" thanks to the "enhancements" coming in April, the lottery said.
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On top of that, Mega Millions said they can also expect "improved odds to win the jackpot" compared to the 1 in 302.575 million chances provided by the game’s current matrix.
Mega Millions will incorporate a "built-in multiplier on every play, automatically improving every non-jackpot win by 2X, 3X, 4X, 5X or 10X" and have "no breakeven prizes," according to the lottery.
Mega Millions last did a major revamp of its lottery game in 2017.
In this photo illustration, Mega Millions lottery tickets are displayed on Aug. 1, 2023, in San Anselmo, California. (Illustration by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images / Getty Images)
That redesign also involved a price increase that brought its tickets to $2, the current per-pay price for Mega Millions. Prior to that, they had been $1.
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With the April overhaul, Mega Millions is "creating a game that both our existing players and people new to Mega Millions will love and get excited about playing," Mega Millions Consortium Lead Director Joshua Johnston said in a statement.
"We expect more billion-dollar jackpots than ever before, meaning creating more billionaires and many more millionaires as the jackpots climb, plus this game will continue the important legacy of supporting great causes everywhere Mega Millions is played."
A person plays the Mega millions lottery at a gas station as giant Powerball and Mega Millions jackpots grow more than $1B combined, in Trona, California, United States on July 11, 2023. (Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images / Getty Images)
The largest jackpot in Mega Millions' history — $1.602 billion — was drawn in August of last year. In five other instances since 2018, people have landed grand prizes upwards of $1 billion.
$1.13 BILLION MEGA MILLIONS PRIZE IN NEW JERSEY IS UNCLAIMED AND HAS A DEADLINE
Mega Millions most recently had a billion-dollar jackpot winner in late March with a New Jersey ticket winning a $1.128 billion windfall.
Fellow lottery Powerball has also produced its share of super-sized jackpots.
Between the two lotteries, a $2.04 billion Powerball jackpot from 2022 takes the cake as the biggest.