Popular Lottery Game Announces Massive Ticket Price Increase
The price tag to play one of New York's most popular lottery games will more than double next year!
If you are a lottery player and enjoy the thrill of picking out your lucky numbers a few times a week in hopes of matching them with the numbers that are drawn to win a huge jackpot, prepare to pay $3 more to play one of the biggest games in the U.S.
Mega Millions to Increase Ticket Price
Mega Millions is one of the most played lottery games in the country giving players from 45 states the chance to become an overnight millionaire on Tuesdays and Fridays nights. Currently, players pay $2 for each ticket to get a shot at the jackpot, but that is about to change. According to ABC, Mega Millions has announced that ticket prices will increase from $2 per ticket to $5 as they do an "overhaul" of the lottery game.
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The ticket price increase will begin in April 2025, and will be the second time in the games 22 year history that the price has increased. The last increase was back in 2017 when the price jumped from $1 to $2 according to lottery officials.
Mega Millions Changing the Game
Along with the increased price tag, Mega Millions will also begin to offer no breakeven prizes and a built-in multiplier on every play, meaning that when someone wins a prize the prize will always be more than the cost of the ticket. The overhaul will also allow the game's jackpots to start larger, grow faster and will result in bigger jackpots more frequently, as well as better odds of winning according to Joshua Johnston, lead director of the Mega Millions Consortium who told ABC,
"We are creating a game that both our existing players and people new to Mega Millions will love and get excited about playing. 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."
Billion $$ Jackpots
Over the years Mega Millions has had 6 jackpot wins that were more than $1 billion with the most recent win coming in March, when a single ticket sold in New Jersey, won the $1.128 jackpot. Tickets for Mega Millions are sold in 45 states, along with Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
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