I don't see where I was complaining.  My point, which I did not make clear, is that these games are jackpot vampires (sucking all the decent sized in-state jackpots up and giving players a jackpot drought in their place).

I'm not much of a mind reader.  "Jackpot vampires" is a fun term.  My experience is that people pretty quickly move to a state jackpot game of any size because it has better odds.  If I'm in a state where I can play, I certainly drop my dollar on MM (for the fickle finger of fate) and on the state game too (with better odds).  Probably not so much the fault of the multi-state games as the fault of players if they walk away from a good state game. FL has a great state game.  It will see a 30% cut (common in both PB and MM states) but the FL game is big enough that it will do fine; and PB will much more than make up the difference.  Not that it makes a big difference to FL.  Their profit will be slightly better on a multi-state game (shared costs of production, uplink, and everything else - and in PB's case, a state is paid to join the game) but it is a strong game that deserves the attention of local players. 

This should save me money because I play based solely on expectation value, the jackpot divided by the odds.

I don't play when the expectation value is below a certain level, but as it rises, I play more and more.

I have a choice of whether to play Powerball and Mega since I live in a border area between states.

Because Powerball's odds were better, I tended to end up playing powerball more often.   That's likely to change now.

I'm not sure when MM makes its game change.

MM is making game changes too?

I don't recall reading or hearing anything about it though they seem to be doing well enough as it is now. I doubt they'd change it in response to Powerball's changes unless MM adds another good size (at least similar to MM's current average state population) state though I don't think there are many, if any left, I'd have too look since I don't know all the states are that are already involved with either game. If Florida had joined Mega Millions they probably would have changed their odds to something like 1 in well over 200,000,000.

Florida is the last U.S. Lottery state to go multi-state.  There may be some new lotteries coming, but not anytime soon.  Arkansas may be next - in 2010 or so.  A few other states flirt with lotteries from time-to-time -- WY, NV, AK, HI have all had bills proposed, but failed. 

I think Powerball will reclaim the jackpot record. There's 49 million more combinations, which is a 33% increase. That's huge. Hell, 1 in 1 million is a shot in the dark; much less 1 in 195 million. It's insane. Powerball will start seeing super big jackpots a lot more often now.

But remember that Powerball limits its jackpot growth at the record levels - dumping the money into a Match 5 BONUS pool.  That will slow the growth to the world record; spreading the wealth instead.

I think it will get quick tie at $390M when the matrix changes. A few months later, $415M.

From your keyboard to the odds gods . . . .

I think if MM sees that Powerball is getting higher jackpots like 300 million plus, they will have a matrix change as well.

I am holding out for better odds and a $2 ticket price on powerball. 

I hope MegaMillions skips the matrix change and just goes to the $2 ticket price and maybe Megaplier, smallaplier(higher prizes at $2 thru $150 level), and bigaplier (higher 2nd 250k level prize and higher 3rd 10k level Prize).  I'd get the ticket with bigaplier.

You're in luck. I talked to the managers at Powerball, and they've made special arrangements for you. When you buy your tickets, pay $2 and they'll let you pick 2 sets of numbers, so your odds will be "only" 1 in 97.5 million.

Your wish is granted for MM. 

But Powerball is already a $2 game, if you want that.  It is just optional.  Once, in a candle store, I saw a sign on a giant candle that said "$1 a pull".  I talked to the manager and he said that he wanted to stop people from trying to lift the candel by the wick.  He had posted a "Don't Lift Candle" sign but found that you can't tell Americans "NO".  So, he put up a sign charging $1 to lift the candle by the wick.  Americans demand a choice.  You can still play Powerball for $1 or for $2 (which redesigns the game to put more money into the lower prize tiers).