The old saying goes: “the bigger the risk, the bigger the reward.”
Starting Tuesday, April 8, the price to get a ticket for one of the Massachusetts lottery’s most popular jackpot games for lottery players, The Mega Millions, is going up.
The new game will deliver a prize at least twice the cost to play, the press release said.
“Every non-jackpot win will multiply its base prize by 2X, 3X, 4X, 5X or 10X automatically,” the press release said.
Jackpots are predicted to grow faster than before, as the Mega Millions Consortium has estimated that the average jackpot hit will be over $800 million, almost double the winning amount of the last game.
Lottery tickets for the Mega Millions lottery are purchased from a liquor store where winning tickets have been sold on December 27, 2024, in Hawthorne, California.
Mega Millions price increase
The Massachusetts lottery as well as other state lotteries participating in the Mega Millions game will be more than doubling the price of a ticket.
“With higher value prizes embedded throughout every tier of the game, tickets for the new Mega Millions game will increase to $5 per play,” the press release said.
Before this change, a play at the Mega Millions game only cost $2. This Tuesday, April 8, will see a mark-up of three dollars to play at $5 per play.
“This is only the game’s second price adjustment since the first ticket was sold more than 20 years ago and the first change since the current game matrix was adopted in 2017,” the press release said.
What will the new Mega Millions odds be?
The lottery press release said that the odds to hit the jackpot is 1:290,472,336, which is an improvement from the last game’s odds, which was 1:302,575,350.
The overall odds of winning are 1:23, better than the last game’s overall odds, which were 1:24.
“The new game will feature 24 Mega Balls instead of the 25 in the current game,” the press release said.
The price increase comes with a change to the minimum winning prize. The minimum prize was set at $2 but now the new minimum is $10, meaning winning players will at least double their money whereas before they might just break even.
When will the next Mega Millions drawing be?
The next Mega Millions drawing will occur on April 8, tomorrow night, at 11 p.m.
“Drawing Closes Tomorrow at 10:45 pm,” the Massachusetts lottery website said.
Rin Velasco is a trending reporter. She can be reached at rvelasco@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: MA Lottery: Mega Millions players see bump to $5 tickets