Mega Millions lottery tickets across the U.S. will increase next year, according to a press release from Mega Millions.
After recommendations from the Mega Millions consortium, the Texas Lottery Commission agreed to several changes to the multi-state lottery with a jackpot that often reaches hundreds of millions of dollars. The national game sells tickets in 45 states.
“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,” said Joshua Johnston, the lead director of the Mega Millions Consortium.
With the $5 ticket, players will benefit from:
- Improved odds to win the jackpot
- Bigger jackpots more frequently
- Larger starting jackpots
- Faster growing jackpots
- 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
- No breakeven prizes, meaning when a player wins, they’ll always win more than the cost of the 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 press release said.
The new game changes will launch in April 2025.
In 2023, Mega Millions generated over $440 million in sales. Since January, Mega Millions sold over $246 million worth of tickets and had a 33% increase in sales in the last week of September.
On Sept. 10, the winning ticket of $800 million in the Texas Lottery was sold in Sugarland.
“Since the last change in 2017, more than 1,200 players have become millionaires, an average of three millionaires per week,” the release said.
In general, revenue from the lottery goes to the Foundation School Program after prizes, payments, and expenses. This is the main funding for public education, Dick Lavine, a senior fiscal analyst at Every Texan in Austin, told KSAT.
“If lottery revenue were to go up, the only effect would be less need for general revenue to fund the school finance formulas. No change in per-student funding,” Lavine said.
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