The Mega Millions Consortium announced today that in response to flagging sales due to the COVID-19 response, the multi-state lottery game's starting jackpot has been lowered and the amounts of subsequent starting jackpots and jackpot increases will be determined on a drawing-by-drawing basis.
The advertised Mega Millions jackpot for tonight's drawing is a guaranteed $121 million. If the jackpot is won, it will reset to a guaranteed $20 million for the next drawing on Tuesday. If there is no jackpot winner tonight, the jackpot will roll to an annuitized value of $127 million.
Future starting jackpots and the rate at which the jackpot increases will be established based on game sales and interest rates, with no fixed minimum amount. Jackpot amounts will be determined and announced prior to each drawing.
Previously, the jackpot started at $40 million, and the minimum increase was $5 million for each roll.
"The changes are in direct response to slowing sales during the current global pandemic," said Bishop Woosley, director of the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery. "The value of the Mega Millions jackpot is based on projected sales, and typical sales patterns have been altered because the current health crisis has required people to stay home," he said. "We are concerned, first and foremost, with everyone's health and well-being. Meanwhile, these adjustments will allow the states and jurisdictions that sell Mega Millions' tickets to continue generating much-needed revenue to support state budgets."
The Mega Millions Consortium's announcement today followed a similar move by Powerball yesterday and last week.
Mega Millions' tickets are $2 each and are sold in 45 states, Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Drawings are held each Tuesday and Friday.
All Mega Millions drawings, including official drawing video, detailed breakdown of prizes, and exclusive Jackpot Analysis, are available at USA Mega (www.usamega.com), a website devoted to the United States's two biggest multi-state lottery games, Powerball and Mega Millions.
With many lottery retailers shuttered due to the coronavirus, players trying to locate an alternate retailer can use the free Lottery Places app to find all the retailers near them, as well as retailers near any address they enter.
Just to echo what everyone has been saying in other threads, they need to adjust the ticket price downward to match the lower jackpot. Call me spoiled but I'm not interested in paying $3 a pop (Megaplier added) for a jackpot of $20M. I will simply spend that money on lower tier state lottery games or nothing at all.
In the interest of fairness and transparency, shouldn't Mega Millions and Powerball tell us how much sales have dropped over the last few weeks so that we can know that these changes are realistic. They are always ready to crow during big jackpots about weekly, daily and even hourly sales. Now we hear nothing. On another note, they should also drop the price now that they are lowering the jackpots while the odds of winning the same.
In Texas, it seems that people are flocking to the Two Step game. There has been 5 winners out of the last 6 drawings.
I agree, if this unprecedented situation causes people to rediscover their in-state games, that's a great thing.
You can check the draw sales report on Tx Lottery's website. Over the past 6 draws sales have ranged from about 377K to a little over 400K. So, sales haven't been above normal. When jackpots get to 500K and more is when sales really jump.
As for me, I never miss buying a ticket.
Does lotterypost walls have ears? We were just discussing or whispering really on whether MM had made a move on their part to match PB's change of heart, and what do you know- they going after the stepchild. Couldn't leave well enough alone, Unbelievable..
Compared to past similar PB jackpots, sales are about half and MM is about 20% lower. IMO they should advertise the cash value and use the annuity an collecting option. Most players take the cash in both games.
Playing on-line won $8 on MM last night.
It cost you how much to play tho?
I'm not playing neither game unless they drop the ticket price...or up the reset jackpot as before...
PB, MM... come up with an incentive, like other businesses...!!!
Three dollars.
With money saved from no casinos am buying more stock Monday with drugs proving successful against COVID-19...this one is $2.79/share!
Just noticed that MM only increased by $6 mill .... sales are definitively down.
"they need to adjust the ticket price downward to match the lower jackpot."
I'm pretty sure that if they adjust the ticket price it's going to automatically adjust the jackpot by a corresponding amount. The result is that unless the reduced price results in a significant increase in ticket sales the reduced price means the jackpots will get even smaller. Anyone who's been paying attention knows that PB and MM have proved over the past few years that the higher ticket price results in bigger jackpots, and that bigger jackpots is what the majority of players want.
"shouldn't Mega Millions and Powerball tell us how much sales have dropped"
In theory they do tell us, if you know where to look. The TX lottery posts a file with data for PB that includes a bunch of information. The current file is here. You can find just the simple sales figures for both games here and here. In reality I think the published sales figures are estimates that aren't always updated to reflect actual sales. In the past you could also calculate a close estimate of total sales from the advertised annuity amount and a more accurate estimate from the actual cash prize announced when a jackpot was won. Right now PB sales have been reduced enough that for the advertised jackpot of $180 million they're still only selling about a many tickets as they normally do for a starting jackpot of $40 million. The result is that even at the 15th drawing sales haven't been enough to fully fund the advertised annuity. The actual cash in the prize pool is really only enough to fund an annuity that's a mere $500k more than the published cash value.
That all begs the question of how much cash a winner would get if they win tonight's jackpot. They normally have disclaimer that the cash value is an estimate, so in the past a winner might have really won $155.5 million instead of the estimated $156 million (or they might have gotten $157 million is sales exceeded the estimates). Right now they know for an absolute fact that they're far short of the $156 million cash estimate, ( I figure they've actually got about $126 million) so if they don't pay out something pretty close to the claimed $156 million Id say they're committing a very blatant fraud. I expect that they'll honor the published cash value, which means they'll be taking a loss compared to the usual 50% profit. If they were to pay out just $126 million it might actually make sense to take the annuity this time around.
The best option is to combine Mega-millions and Powerball into a single game. $1 per ticket and drawings twice a week.
If you have all players wagering on a single game the jackpot grows bigger, faster. Everyone is a winner.
At this point, l don't really care how much it creeps up the monetary ladder- if l hit either jp, l am out of here. The same goes for our State lottery- l hit it l am gone, in all honesty, l can hardly wait. That low hanging fruit will do just fine.
TBH: When it comes to playing the lottery, we are all " beggars" & beggars can't be choosers. If we win $20mil, we don't complain, we take it & shut our mouths. There is no science to it, no evolution. It's all about having the right mental attitude.
I believe they increased the jackpot (40M) and increased the price to play ($2). Now they want to decrease the jackpot (20M)but keep the price to play $2. Kinda half done
..which begs the question, if you played & won, would you tell the powers that be " l will not accept $20mil, l want the full $40 mil or you can keep the money! "
Who do you think will BLINK first?
Well I haven't been playing lately so won't worry about blinking.
Thanks for the great information. I'll stay tuned to see what happens if ticket sales continue to drop. I usually only played when the jackpot was super high anyway, mainly because it took a lot of losers to fund that ONE jackpot winning ticket. I always suspected that the QP option was programmed to not create duplicate tickets that had the same combination of numbers and same Powerball. That was one way to make sure there were rarely if ever multiple winners unless they were a group pooling their money. I much preferred Pick 3 for the odds and in a year alone in my state i won about $10,000 twice with 40 tickets on the same straight number. Not millions, ,but a pretty good haul.
In Illinois we residents can purchase these lottery tickets online without an upcharge. The first credit card I tried to use didn't allow though. However, the second credit card I entered did allow it. Cheers, fellow gamblers.
What are the odds they will combine mega millions and Powerball. I can't see either game surviving with such low jackpots and high ticket prices
Yep. It will happen. Some people just like to milk things until they are forced to accept reality. This is now the reality they needed to see.
noise-gate..I believe you are putting the cart BEFORE the horse..!!
It's the lottery that's begging we players to accept such a chitty deal...
As, I've posted before, We players don't share in their profits, so they shouldn't expect us to want to share in their losses! ... They're not following "Supply vs Demand rules..Gas prices have gone down , since people aren't driving as much now...so..!!
IMO ... there will be those that won't see anything wrong with paying the same price for a lottery ticket that now yields half the usual proceeds..!! with the same terrible odds..!!
Again, Kenny Rogers' appropriate song for our decisions...!!
Know when to fold'em,
Know when to walk away,
Know when to run.."
-Stat$talker
I dropped MM a few weeks ago, and for the first time in months, years?, didn't play PB. Just Tx Lotto, and Tx 2 Step.
Why, well, I'm not working, and while I'm not dropping my play completely, I am cutting way back. Not really so much because of the changes PB and MM are making. I generally played those games with the idea that I would be quite happy with second prize. Retirement $$ at my age. Even so, I still believe it would be best for them to combine the 2 games into one game and drop the cost to a buck. But, what I believe they should do doesn't mean squat to them. I'm ok with that.
BTW, gas prices going down has nothing to do with people driving less. If you paid attention to world events, Saudi Arabia and Russia are having a spat over production, which has dropped tremendously over MONEY, which means right now there is a glut of oil, which means the cost of gas has gone down. The Permian Basin in west Tx was hopping up until the fight between Russia and Saudi. Yes, people are driving less because of job losses from Covid 19, not the cost of gas.
Then again, I'm driving more than ever taking Mama to Dallas almost every day to the Dr. So, happy for gas prices being low.
It's not the amount of any particular jackpot setting...
It's the commensurate price in comparison to what we've been paying as opposed to what they convertly slippin by players now...
All we want, is to get a slice of pie, for a fair price of a slice of pie... Not get charged for 2 and 1/2 slices of pie, when were only getting 1...
Dinoball .. (terrible lottery game odds)
Megasaur..( huge fall of the "Big Game" lottery)
-Stat$talker
" But, what I believe they should do doesn't mean squat to them."
Quite the contrary... What you and I and others players think, does matter to them , if enough of us stop playing .. insufficient revenue coming in gets the same serious attention, whether it's from player discrepancies, or a Pandemic..or anything else..playing the Lottery isn't an "essential" business...
What is essential to them, is our steady flow of money into the State's coffers..!!
They insure themselves not to take a loss.. but seemingly don't give a f**k about we players taking a loss.. up to and including possibly losing your life..!! .. running out to buy a lottery ticket, risking catching the most contagious deadly disease since the Spanish Flu.. is NUTS..!! especially if you're in a hotspot...like NY, Washinton State, Louisiana, Detroit.. etc..
If they cared , they'd move it online, for the same starting jackpots..!!..
These shelter-in orders won't last forever,.. l hope...but if they do or don't... the crummy deal they're offering us now, isn't worth considering..!!
"Saudi Arabia and Russia are having a spat over production, which has dropped tremendously over MONEY, which means right now there is a glut of oil, which means the cost of gas has gone down."
I believe I said that.. in different words tho..."Supply and Demand"..
-Stat$talker
If powerball and mega millions merge because of this I want $2 tickets and twice a week because when I play multi-state games I expect to see a big jackpot not a litttle one that is what Oregon megabucks is for. So if you want $1 tickets you still expect small jackpots and I want jackpots regularly passing $500 million if they merge to see one winner. That is why I play multi-state games for one $3 ticket to play for a big jackpot.-weshar75
You're exactly right about the reason for the drop in gas prices. Saudi Arabia and Russia spatting, but also the stock market.
Was the second credit card a debit card? I thought we can only use those. My debit card, tied to my checking account, is what I use. I would think using you regular credit card for this would be consider "a cash withdrawal" with extra charges.
Wish we could do scratchers online....
Here in KY they have the credit card, not debit, information so all I have to do is click on the amount of deposit. No charges whatsoever. Our lotto machines don't take cards. If memory serves me correctly Ohio machines didn't care and I know Arizona only takes debit cards.
We can play scratchers on line, called instant games. They are not the same ones for sale in the stores though. Perhaps part of the package deal, no Pick 3 or Pick on-line (that is true), but maybe the same for instant tickets so the Mom and Pop stores still get traffic.
l respectfully disagree Stat- common sense tells us that the lottery does NOT lower their price for a ticket. They will juggle with the odds, but not the price. The other thing to consider is, how often is the jp won? They not stupid to think that people will not show up to the party, there may be less people buying tickets, but buy they will. But hey, l hear you.
I have a debit/credit card for almost all my Online purchases and use it to deposit money into KY Lottery "fun club" too. Try to keep it under $100 so if something happens I won't lose very much. The KY Lottery allows up to three bank accounts for deposits and one for withdrawals. I believe there are about ten Online instant games that have jackpots over $100,000.
Don't see any deals MM or PB are asking players to accept by lowering their estimated jackpots. Especially considering almost every jackpot winner takes the cash. Basically you're complaining about something that could effect hardly any lottery players.
Now if they lower the secondary prize payoffs........But that didn't happen.
Ok,.. So it's obvious again, that you don't SEE the difference in $40 Million, vs $20 Million reset jackpots.. but still at $2. per ticket..that's THEIR deal. We know that the increases has always reflected ticket sales from draw to draw..!!
Oh and here's a suggestion!!... If you win a MM or PB jackpot, ..allow me to be your Financial Advisor..!!
"Ok,.. So it's obvious again, that you don't SEE the difference in $40 Million, vs $20 Million resetjackpots.."
Friday's advertised MM jackpot was $121 million and with only 8.35 million tickets sold there was only a 2.7% of somebody winning the jackpot. And if they did, considering what the World is now going through, it's plain stupid to get a 29 year annuity.
"We know that the increases has always reflected ticket sales from draw to draw..!!"
Because the with the exceptions of the start-up advertised jackpots, the annuities are based on the cash values. The current MM cash value is $103 million and a winner could wait 29 years to collect a pre-tax $127 million or invest the after Federal tax $67 million. I thought everyone on LP (apparently except you) knew the advertised jackpot was based on the cash value.
Why oh why are you attempting to educate the informed?
FYI, the last time a starting jackpot was won was on 07/22/2016 when 16 million $1 tickets were sold and you're whining about them lowering the advertised jackpot. And that was when there were 258,890,000 possible combos at $1 a ticket and not the 302,575,350 combos at $2 a ticket today.
You have no point just a bunch of
You're right it's a waste of time and space trying to explain PB and MM advertised jackpots are based on the cash value.
Tired of the high ticket prices of the Megamillions and Powerball and crappy odds when they added more numbers, now they are both lowering their jackpots I am about ready to be done with them. People need to stop buying their games and force them back to the old $1 tickets with the better odds. Now the Powerball has been won it's down to $20 million and I think it's time to skip it.
I knew PB wouldn't keep up that last jackpot too long... They essentially HAD to give it away to relieve themselves of the high financial burden , with dwindling funds coming in...just to get to the new $20 Million reset starting point...then to adjust each drawing as THEY see fit...!!
Proof that they're controlling when , where it's won...
With less people playing, does it not strike you strange that at a relatively low jackpot, all of a sudden, it's won..? Especially considering how "hard " it's SUPPOSE to be to win... I think Congress needs to investigate the F***kers..!!!
I guarantee MM won't be far behind doing the exact same thing...