That’s right! Mega Millions, the popular multi-state lottery game, announced it is looking to boost the size of its jackpots. The logic behind that is presumably its competition with Powerball USA. Both Lottery games have enormous appeal in North America and among online lotto players.
Increase in Ticket Prices
Mega Millions has to raise funds to cater for the increase in jackpot levels. The planned increase is due in 2025, and the price of a ticket will increase drastically. The plan is to sell tickets for $5.00 a line – currently, it costs $2 a row. That is an inflation-busting increase and would raise a storm of protest on most other lottery games. We fully expect to see jackpots grow with the increase in the price of the lottery ticket.
Mega Millions has already paid out a jackpot that was worth over $1.6 billion in prize money on an annuity basis. The cash value for that particular winner was worth $783.3 million. The winner would have to pay additional taxes depending on the location. Federal and possibly State taxes would need to be taken care of, too.
That would mean a win of approximately half a billion dollars for a single-ticket winner. Not bad for a $2 lottery ticket purchase. Who, though, buys a single lottery ticket? By more than doubling the price of Mega Millions tickets, the expectation would be a big increase in lottery prizes for the almost 30-year-old lottery.
Mega Millions Innovating Again
Mega Millions has a history of innovation in its lottery game. Since changing from being named The Big Game to its latest $5 lottery ticket game, we fully expect the entertainment level to increase, along with the size of the jackpots.
A billion-dollar lottery game, which we have witnessed a few times in the recent past, attracts a crowd, and we guess that’s what Mega Millions is banking on. There will be those who baulk at paying $5 for a lottery ticket, those who don’t mind and some who will buy fewer lines. There is nothing like a billion-dollar lottery jackpot to convince one that it’s a good investment.
This will also affect Mega Millions players online. For those who participate using lottery concierge services, the price is normally a minimum of 10% more than the official lottery ticket prices. Many millions of people from outside the official jurisdictions play the Mega Millions Lottery. There are now venues where you can legally buy tickets online for most lotteries, including Mega Millions.
Online Mega Millions play does boost the jackpot level as there are many, particularly in the developing world, where half a billion or even a million dollars will transform many lives. We are going to monitor the situation around the Mega Millions price increase and will report back closer to the time on the reaction people have to the more than double the price increase.
