Mega Millions changes will lead to 'more billionaire jackpots', expert says

Changes are coming to the Mega Millions next month that will increase a player's chances of winning it big. 

Starting in April, ticket prices will jump from $2 to $5, which is the second adjustment in more than two decades. 

The change in price will accelerate jackpots much faster, and allow the company to raise the starting jackpot from $20 million to $50 million, experts say.

"You’re going to see a lot more billion-dollar jackpots," said Mike Silveira, chief of staff at Jackpot!.com, in an interview with FOX Business. 

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To play Mega Millions, lottery players choose six numbers in total: five different numbers from 1 to 70 which are the white balls, and one number from 1 to 25, the gold Mega Ball. Players can also select Easy Pick/Quick Pick, which is when the computer will choose random numbers for them. 

Additionally, most states offer a Megaplier feature to increase non-jackpot prizes by 2, 3, 4 or 5 times. It currently costs an additional $1 per play.  

Currently, all players that opt in for a particular draw would share the same multiplier. For example, if the multiplier is 5X, all players that win any amount under the advertised jackpot amount would have their winnings multiplied by 5, Silveira said.

In the new game, the multiplier is free, can go up to 10X, and will be unique for each ticket purchased, he explained. For example, if someone buys two tickets, they may have one ticket with a 2X multiplier and another with a 10X multiplier, Silveira added.

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There will also no longer be break-even prizes, which means when a player wins, they will get more than the cost of what they paid for the ticket. 

Silveira highlighted that with improved odds of winning big and faster-growing jackpots, the game is also expected to attract a younger, more casual player base moving forward.

"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," Joshua Johnston, lead director of the Mega Millions Consortium, said.

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Mega Millions said the lottery game has already produced a record number of jackpot wins exceeding $1 billion. Since it launched in 2002, there have been six billion-dollar jackpot winners. Since the last change in 2017, more than 1,200 players have become millionaires, an average of 3 millionaires per week.

It's not an impossible feat though the odds of winning are fairly slim. The odds of winning the Mega Million jackpot is 1 in 302 million. It's one in 292 million for the Powerball jackpot.

Those odds still haven't stopped Americans who spent $97.8 billion on tickets in 2022, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau. While states received a record $97.8 billion in lottery sales that year, they paid out $65.2 billion in prizes, and had $28.3 billion in proceeds available, according to The Motley Fool.