Mega Millions Ticket Prices Will Double in Price to $5, but Lottery Claims There Will Be Better Odds of Winning

People will have to pay a bit more to get a chance at winning the big bucks!

Mega Millions lottery officials announced on Monday, Oct. 7 that they will be doubling the price of their game to $5 a ticket in April — the second price adjustment lottery officials have made since it began. 

The current odds to win a jackpot with the Mega Millions are set at 1 in 302.6 million, per the Associated Press. Lottery officials say the price increase will allow for “improved odds to win the jackpot,” “bigger jackpots more frequently,” “larger starting jackpots” and “faster growing jackpots.”

“We are creating a game that both our existing players and people new to Mega Millions will love and get excited about playing,” said Joshua Johnston, Lead Director of the Mega Millions Consortium in a press release. 

“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,” he added.

The new game will also come with “a built-in multiplier on every play,” which lottery officials said would automatically improve “every non-jackpot win by 2X, 3X, 4X, 5X or 10X – up to $10 million for matching the five white balls.” There will also no longer be any “breakeven prizes,” so if a player wins, they will “always win more than the cost of the ticket,” per the announcement. 

Lottery officials are hoping that the new odds of winning will attract people — who often buy in when there’s a greater prize on the line — to play the lottery despite the increased cost, per the AP.

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Since the last time the lottery hiked its prices from $1 to $2 in 2017, Mega Millions said more than 1,200 players have become millionaires. It also noted that there have been six billion-dollar jackpot winners since it first launched in 2002. 

One of its latest winners includes a Texas resident who won the $800 million Mega Millions jackpot last month.  The drawing was the largest Mega Millions jackpot since the March 26 drawing, when $1.13 billion – the game’s fifth largest jackpot prize – was won by an out of state player, the Texas Lottery said in a press release.

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Mega Millions tickets are sold in 45 states including Washington, D.C. and the U.S. Virgin Islands, according to the lottery. Money collected by the lottery is allocated to government services and other causes. 

While the Mega Millions is upping its price, Powerball officials told AP that their price of $2 per play — in most states — is staying.