Mega Millions tickets rise to $5, but the lottery promises more giant jackpots

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Mega Millions players will get slightly better odds and should start seeing more billion-dollar jackpots, but at a cost — literally — with tickets for the multistate lottery jumping in price to $5.

The price for playing Mega Millions more than doubled for drawings starting with Tuesday's, but lottery officials are betting that the swollen jackpots they're expecting will catch the public's attention and lead to an accompanying surge in sales

“People really want big jackpots,” said Joshua Johnston, the Washington state lottery director who heads the Mega Millions game. “We expect to see a sales lift on this.”

The biggest change is the ticket price hike from $2 to $5. Lottery officials expect that jump to increase revenue from the twice-weekly game, enabling them to improve the odds of winning the jackpot from 1 in 303 million to 1 in 290 million.

The higher ticket price also means the jackpot can start at $50 million, rather than the previous $20 million, and that the grand prize is expected to grow more quickly. Each time there isn’t a big winner, the jackpot will jump by a larger amount. Officials expect it will more frequently top the $1 billion threshold that draws extra attention — and bigger sales.

Under the new rules, prizes for tickets not matching all six numbers also will increase, with non-jackpot winners now guaranteed at least $10. Each ticket also will include a randomly assigned multiplier that can increase the prize by up to 10 times, a previous add-on feature that cost an extra $1. The multiplier doesn't apply to a jackpot.

The new rules have two main goals: to address what the industry calls “jackpot fatigue" and to differentiate Mega Millions from Powerball, the other lottery draw game played across the country.

Jackpot fatigue is the phenomenon under which prizes must grow to enormous amounts before most players will take note and buy a few tickets. These days, a $300 million prize that once drew lines at mini-marts barely registers.

With the new rules, officials expect those average winning jackpots to climb from about $450 million to $800 million, Johnston said. And they believe that even lottery fatigue is no match for the more frequent billion-dollar prize.

“When you get to a billion people are like, ‘Whoa, that’s a whole lot of money,'” Johnston said.

Lottery officials said there is a clear correlation between bigger jackpots and higher sales, but not everyone who plays is swayed by the bigger pots.

Sandie Yeaman, of Omaha, Nebraska, expressed puzzlement at the connection.

“I’d be satisfied with $1 million, and so would others," she said. "One person winning $50 million is ridiculous.”

Mega Millions will be the country's most expensive lottery draw game, where random numbers are selected to determine a winner.

Still, that price is far less than scratch tickets offered by some states. In Texas, for example, some scratch tickets cost $100 each.

Outside the U.S., the El Gordo Christmas lottery in Spain limits the number of tickets sold and charges 20 euros (nearly $22) for a partial ticket and 200 euros (nearly $220) for a full ticket.

The higher Mega Millions price left Saeedith Williams, of East Point, Georgia, unsure if he'll keep buying several tickets per week. “Maybe I’ll buy one ticket a week now that it’s $5 a ticket,” he said.

After the new rules are implemented, the two lottery games that once were remarkably similar now will have some key differences.

The biggest contrast will be the cost, as Powerball will stick with its $2 tickets — $3 in Idaho and Montana where they require a special prize bundle.

With that smaller ticket price will come smaller minimal prizes, starting at $4, or less than half the lowest Mega Millions prize. But Powerball players will still be able to pay an extra dollar for “Power Play,” a random multiplier that, as in Mega Millions, can increase all but the grand prize.

Powerball drawings will continue to be three times a week — Monday, Wednesday and Saturday nights — while Mega Millions will hold drawings on Tuesday and Friday.

The changes will bring the two games' jackpot odds a little closer, with Powerball jackpot odds of 1 in 292.2 million just a bit worse than the new Mega Millions odds.

For players, it's a chance to spend a little money on a dream of incredible riches while acknowledging the reality that it almost certainly won't happen.

For the 45 states plus Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands where Mega Millions is played, the game raises money for a variety of services, such as education scholarships. Local lottery agencies run the game in each jurisdiction and decisions about how the profits are divvied up are written into state law.

Associated Press writer Margery A. Beck contributed from Omaha, Nebraska.

Pete Gruber holds a Mega Millions lottery ticket at Mares Mart in Chicago, Sunday, April 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

Purchased Powerball and Mega Millions tickets are shown at Mares Mart in Chicago, Sunday, April 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

A Mega Millions lottery ticket is printed out of a lottery machine at Mares Mart in Chicago, Sunday, April 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

Information sign about Mega Millions ticket prices are set to increase on lottery ticket vending machine at a convenience store in Chicago, Sunday, April 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

Pete Gruber points a Mega Millions lottery ticket after he purchased at Mares Mart in Chicago, Sunday, April 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

Information sign about Mega Millions ticket prices are set to increase, left, and a customer shows a printed Mega Millions lottery ticket at a convenience store in Chicago, Sunday, April 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

An employee of Mares Mart hands a Mega Millions lottery ticket to a customer in Chicago, Sunday, April 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

Pete Gruber points a Mega Millions lottery ticket after he purchased at Mares Mart in Chicago, Sunday, April 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

A Mega Millions lottery ticket vending machine is seen at a convenience store in Chicago, Sunday, April 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

A lottery ticket vending machine is seen at a convenience store in Chicago, Sunday, April 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

PARIS (AP) — French farmers steered some 350 tractors Tuesday over cobblestoned Paris avenues toward Parliament to protest low incomes and an EU trade deal with South America that they fear threatens their livelihoods.

Escorted by police, the tractors tangled rush-hour traffic as they rumbled down the Champs-Elysees and other Paris avenues, and then over the Seine River to reach the National Assembly.

Farmer anger in France and other European countries has escalated over a rash of challenges. The unions leading Tuesday’s protests said they are demanding ″concrete and immediate action″ to defend France’s food security.

French government spokesperson Maud Bregeon said on TF1 television Tuesday that the government would make new announcements soon to help farmers.

President Emmanuel Macron and his government oppose the EU-Mercosur trade deal, but it is expected to be signed in Paraguay on Saturday anyway, because it has the support of most other EU countries.

European farmers have long denounced the trade deal with the Mercosur nations of Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay, arguing that it would flood the market with cheaper imports.

Farmers drive their tractors down the Champs-Elysees avenue as they protest over the Mercosur trade deal Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026 in Paris. Banner reads: Mercosur, death for sure. (AP Photo/Emma Da Silva)

Farmers drive their tractors down the Champs-Elysees avenue as they protest over the Mercosur trade deal Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026 in Paris. Poster reads: Macron traitor. (AP Photo/Emma Da Silva)

Farmers drive their tractors down the Champs-Elysees avenue as they protest the Mercosur EU trade deal with South America they fear threatens their livelihoods, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026 in Paris. Poster reads: Macron, we arrive. (AP Photo/Emma Da Silva)

Farmers protest by the National Assembly as they protest against the Mercosur EU trade deal with South America they fear threatens their livelihoods, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026 in Paris. Banner reads: the peasant revolt resumes. (AP Photo/Emma Da Silva)

Farmers drive their tractors by the Arc de Triomphe as they protest over the Mercosur trade deal Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026 in Paris. (AP Photo/Emma Da Silva)