Last chance for $2 tickets! Mega Millions prices, odds, jackpots change next week

Yahoo

04-04-2025

Big changes are coming to the Mega Millions lottery next week. Today is the last Mega Millions drawing that tickets will cost $5.
By next Tuesday, April 8, Mega Millions tickets will cost $5. And it doesn't stop at ticket prices, there are a few other 'mega' changes coming to the lottery game, like better odds of winning and bigger non-jackpot prizes.
'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 release last week.
'Non-jackpot prizes at every level are going up by 2X to 10X. That's the kind of value the new Mega Millions will deliver to our players at every single drawing.'
Here's what to know about the new Mega Millions, which will begin next week.
7 things to know: Mega Millions jackpots to get bigger faster, ticket prices going up.
On Tuesday, April 8, Mega Millions tickets will cost more than $2 for the first time in the history of the game.
The price of the tickets will be more than double what they are now, at $5 per play. But the multiplier is included in this price, meaning the current $1 charge to add the multiplier will go away.
This is only the second time the ticket price has gone up since the game began in 2002. In 2017, the price increased from $1 to $2.
Here's a quick breakdown of all the changes coming to the Mega Millions lottery, beginning on Tuesday, April 8:
Bigger starting jackpots will grow faster, higher: After someone wins a jackpot, the new one will reset to $50 million instead of the current $20 million and is expected to rise more quickly under the new system. According to the Mega Millions Consortium, the average jackpot win in the new game, currently about $450 million, will rise to more than $800 million. That means we could see more billion-dollar-plus jackpots. Non-jackpot prizes will also go up.
New Mega Millions game to have better odds: The new game will feature 24 Mega Balls instead of 25, Mega Millions said, which will improve the overall odds to win any prize to 1 out of 23 from 1 out of 24.
Prizes will get automatic, random multiplier of 2-10X: In Florida and some other states, when you buy a Mega Millions ticket you can pay an extra $1 to get a "Megaplier" that multiplies whatever you win (except the big jackpot) from two to five times. In the new game, everyone gets a multiplier built in for no extra charge, with chances to have your prize automatically and randomly multiplied by two, three, four, five or 10 times. The "Just the Jackpot" feature available in some states will be retired. Starting on Tuesday, April 8, Mega Million prizes will range from $10 to $10 million, compared to the current range of $2 to $1 million.
Ticket prices rising to $5: The price of the tickets will be more than double at $5 per play, rather than the current $2.
You'll always win more than the cost of the ticket: Right now, it's possible to pay $2 and win $2. Ticket prices are going up, but with every ticket including a multiplier of at least 2X, the minimum prize will be $10.
With less Mega Balls included in the drawing, the odds of winning big will slightly rise. When the changes to the Mega Millions lottery take effect next Tuesday, the odds to win the jackpot will become 1 out of 290,472,336 instead of the current 1 out of 302,575,350.
Tonight's drawing is the last chance to buy in for just $2. Mega Millions drawings are at 11 p.m. EDT on Tuesdays and Fridays. The first drawing after the new Mega Millions rules take effect on Tuesday, April 8.
This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Mega Millions $2 tickets going away: Here's when the price rises