Beginning in April 2025, the cost of Mega Millions lottery tickets will more than double. However, lottery officials said the benefits of the upcharge will outweigh complaints by the players.
Tickets will increase to $5 from the current $2 per ticket, lottery officials announced Monday, but that isn’t the only change the Mega Millions game may undergo. Officials said the Texas Lottery Commission’s proposed changes will increase the odds of winning and will create larger payouts.
“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.
It's claimed the $5 ticket will lead to:
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
Powerball and the Mega Millions game, a multi-state lottery that frequently reached hundreds of millions of dollars, are sold in 45 states as well as Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Currently, the odds of winning a Mega Millions jackpot is one in 302.5 million.
Mega Millions generated over $440 million in sales in 2023, and, since January, sold over $246 million worth of tickets.