Mega Millions tickets just got more expensive—but winning the jackpot is easier to win

For the second time in more than 20 years, the Mega Millions lottery is getting a facelift. Tickets will now be twice as expensive, but prizes will also be bigger—and the odds of winning the jackpot have gone up (though your chances of taking home the prize are still infinitesimal.)

The new version of Mega Millions rolled out to players on tickets this Saturday, and the updated game will see its first drawing tomorrow. Here’s what you need to know about how the game has changed (and what it means for your wallet):

How much are tickets?

As of this Saturday, ticket prices for the Mega Millions have gone from $2 to $5 apiece. According to a press release, the price hike will lead to “better odds overall, larger starting jackpots, and faster-growing jackpots”—essentially, the more money players pour into tickets, the larger the communal payout pool becomes. Tickets are sold in 45 states (the exclusions being Alabama, Alaska, Hawaii, Nevada, and Utah), Washington, D.C. and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

This is the second time the Mega Millions has adjusted its game matrix since its inception in 2002. In 2017, ticket prices were doubled from $1 to $2, and, per the release, more than 1,200 players have become millionaires since that last change.

How does this change my odds of winning a prize?

The updated game parameters increase players’ odds of winning any prize from 1 in 24 to 1 in 23. 

For those who do win, they can expect an increased payout. A new built-in multiplier feature will automatically increase every non-jackpot win by 2X, 3X, 4X, 5X, or 10X its base price. Now, non-jackpot prizes will range from $10 to $10 million, compared to the $2 to $1 million scale in the previous game. 

“Beyond big jackpots, players told us they want bigger non-jackpot prizes and that’s exactly what this new game delivers,” Joshua Johnston, lead director of the Mega Millions Consortium, said in the press release. “Players who had won $2 in the old game will now take home $10, $15, $20, $25 or $50 under this game.”

What will happen to the size of the jackpot?

A few important tweaks have been made to the jackpot. To begin with, every starting jackpot will now reset to $50 million instead of the former $20 million. In addition, the Mega Millions Consortium predicts that jackpots will grow faster under the new guidelines, estimating that “the average jackpot win in the new game will be more than $800 million vs. approximately $450 million in the current game.”

This set-up might mean more jackpot wins passing the billion dollar threshold going forward, a payout phenomenon that’s happened just seven times since the lottery’s creation.

How does this change my odds of winning the jackpot?

Your odds of winning the jackpot have just jumped from 1 in 302,575,350 to 1 in 290,472,336.

That might seem like a fairly sizable increase, but it’s less impressive when you realize that your chances of getting struck by lightning within the year are 1 in 700,000. In other words, don’t get your hopes up.

When is the first drawing under the new structure?

Mega Millions drawings take place every Tuesday and Friday at 11 p.m. ET, meaning the first drawing under the new game structure is tomorrow night. You can catch the drawing live on TV stations including ABC, CBS, and NBC or on the Mega Millions website, and past recordings are posted to the Mega Millions YouTube channel.

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