It’ll price you to hit the jackpot.
The value to play Mega Tens of millions has jumped to $5 — greater than double its longstanding price — as lottery officers promise the change will improve odds and churn out extra billion-dollar jackpots.
Updates to the beloved lottery sport, together with the worth improve from $2, went into impact simply forward of Tuesday night time’s drawing.
Lottery officers say the elevated income will enhance the chances of successful the jackpot from 1 in 303 million to 1 in 290 million — and imagine higher odds will improve gross sales.
“People really want big jackpots,” mentioned Joshua Johnston, the Washington state lottery director who heads the Mega Tens of millions sport. “We expect to see a sales lift on this.”
Larger ticket costs imply the jackpot can begin at $50 million, as a substitute of $20 million prefer it had beforehand. It additionally means each time there isn’t an enormous winner, the jackpot will swell even bigger.
Given the minimal prize of $10 on a successful ticket within the new sport, each successful ticket pays out a minimum of double the fee to play the sport, lottery officers mentioned.
The general odds of successful any prize will enhance to 1 in 23 from 1 in 24, officers added.
The elevated ticket price is just the second time costs for the sport have risen within the sport’s 20-year historical past.
Because the sport launched in 2002, seven billion-dollar jackpots have been gained in seven separate states and over 1,200 gamers have change into millionaires, the corporate mentioned.
With Publish wires.
