Your chance of becoming a millionaire by playing Mega Millions will soon cost you more, a lot more.
Starting on April 8, a Mega Millions ticket will cost $5 per play. That’s up from $2 per ticket.
“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 Massachusetts State Lottery Commission said in an earlier statement.
The commission is billing the ticket increase as part of “A ‘mega’ overhaul with plans to be bigger and better than ever when the new and improved game launches in April.”
With the new enhancements, state lottery officials claim that players will benefit from “improved odds to win the jackpot, bigger jackpots more frequently, larger starting jackpots, and faster growing jackpots.”
The new format will include a built-in multiplier on every play, automatically improving every non-jackpot win by 2X, 3X, 4X, 5X or 10X – up to $10 million for matching the five white balls, lottery officials said.
And, there will be no breakeven prizes, meaning when a player wins, they’ll always win more than the cost of the ticket. The minimum prize is $10, officials said.
“By reducing the amount of Mega Ball numbers to choose from in the game from 25 to 24, the odds of winning the jackpot and other prizes that include matching the Mega Ball will improve,” lottery officials said.
As a result of the change in the amount of Mega Balls to choose from, a new play slip must be used after the April 4 drawing.
The final drawing with the current Mega Millions format will be on Friday, April 4. The first drawing with the new enhancements will be on Tuesday, April 8.
Multi-draws for the new Mega Millions will begin on April 5.
Since the introduction of Mega Millions in 2002, there have been five jackpot winners in Massachusetts.
The largest win happened in July 2004, when a $294 million jackpot was won on a ticket sold in Lowell.
Most recently, jackpots of $33 million in Belchertown and $31 million in Woburn were won on consecutive Tuesdays in January 2023. Jackpot prizes of $32 million in Dorchester and $30.5 million in Hyannis were won in 2011 and 2012, respectively.
Mega Millions is a national game with tickets sold in 45 states, Washington, D.C. and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Drawings are held at 11 p.m. ET on Tuesdays and Fridays in Atlanta.
Sales of the game have generated over $1 billion for Massachusetts cities and towns since 2002, state lottery officials said.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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