Mega Millions Lottery

Reply #30

Jon D — Thu, 18 Jul 2013 00:13:56 GMT

It would have to be. By law, CA is pari-mutuel for all games. It should work out OK though for the new MM, the prizes should approach fixed prize values. PB has pretty much caught up already, averaging around $1M for 5/5 prize, and a with few $2M prizes to boot.(last draw had $2,623,314 5/5 winner)

But with MM going to 5x Megaplier, I imagine there might be more civil unrest on that issue of CA not offering a juicy $5M Megaplied 2nd prize. It would probably take rolling over for a couple of m... [ More ]

Reply #29

JKING — Wed, 17 Jul 2013 22:46:45 GMT

Will California stay pari-mutuel AGAIN?

Maybe that 5 of 5 will only be worth $250k in Califronia. *L

Reply #28

DamGod — Wed, 17 Jul 2013 21:02:46 GMT

by the way, last nights MM win in Texas was a self pick......

Reply #27

Stack47 — Wed, 17 Jul 2013 17:23:55 GMT

Excellent point because for every 138,075,120 tickets they sell, there is a better than 50% chance the jackpot will be hit.

Reply #26

jjtheprince — Wed, 17 Jul 2013 17:02:17 GMT

It's not going to take forever to win a jackpot once the odds change. I still think $100 million + MM jackpots will be rare.

Reply #25

Jon D — Wed, 17 Jul 2013 15:04:04 GMT

Reports are saying that Megaplier increases to 5x, and $5M is largest 2nd prize. So it looks like they are hoping to pump up Megaplier sales as well.

Reply #24

RedStang — Wed, 17 Jul 2013 14:56:04 GMT

Took a look on wiki and noticed on the bottom it said It is not known yet whether the Megaplier option will continue.

This is the only good thing i see. I always play the megaplier now for the second prize, so if they take it away i save a buck and they will lose money. That lets me buy another line if i want.

Reply #23

Ronnie316 — Wed, 17 Jul 2013 14:24:20 GMT

Right, when I first started playing the lottery I thought I needed all numbers correct to win. Im sure Im not the only stupid one who plays the lottery. My guess is most people throw their tickts away like I did at the time.

Reply #22

Ronnie316 — Wed, 17 Jul 2013 14:21:18 GMT

Im not so sure........ How does spending $5 or $10 and getting $2 equal winning of a small prize ?

Perhaps walking around with $5. bills and giving them out for $1. is a good idea

Reply #21

Jon D — Wed, 17 Jul 2013 14:09:24 GMT

I think you hit the nail on the head there. That's the hidden source of revenue, the unclaimed prizes or throwaways that people don't bother with. That money typically goes straight to the state's coffers.

It's easy to overlook how much money is in those bottom two tiers. (and the amount of money in rounding down to nearest dollar) About half of all the prize money paid out in 2nd-9th prizes is in those bottom 2 tiers of $2 and $1. So a lot of throwaways can amount to millions of dollars.... [ More ]

Reply #20

RJOh — Wed, 17 Jul 2013 14:03:02 GMT

I find it hard to believe the overall odds of winning a prize will 1:15 or better. If it is then the winning ratios will improve for most players and it's that winning of a small prize that keeps hope alive for most players.

It should be intersting to see how players react to the new matrix.

Reply #19

Ronnie316 — Wed, 17 Jul 2013 13:55:48 GMT

Perhaps people fail to cash the small prize tickets often enough that they found incentive to hand out a whole lot more of them? I'm wondering if the odds for winning $1 million will be BETTER on a scratch off

Reply #18

Jon D — Wed, 17 Jul 2013 13:48:07 GMT

Yep, I rate this change pretty high on the what were they thinking? scale.

I'd expect the sales to go down, and once they realize that only a few winners a year is not good for selling frenzy, they might have yet another matrix change, like PB did.

The increased winners and payouts on the lower tiers is more of a nuisance than anything. I don't want a whole bunch of measly $1 winning tickets. And the 2nd prize is just about the biggest rip-off ever, 1-in-18.5M odds for $1M prize? Right...... [ More ]

Reply #17

Ronnie316 — Wed, 17 Jul 2013 13:48:03 GMT

Right, as if giving us $500 for a 4+0 hit is going to make up for a jackpot that takes FOREVER for someone to win.

Reply #16

noise-gate — Wed, 17 Jul 2013 13:42:53 GMT

In terms easily understood: MM is going to make it more difficult for one to win while asking us to feel good about the fact that they not raising the price. Kinda like taking a dollar out of a kid's hand and handing them a quarter and saying See how shiny it is

Reply #15

Ronnie316 — Wed, 17 Jul 2013 13:20:03 GMT

Reply #14

Ronnie316 — Wed, 17 Jul 2013 13:19:00 GMT

I didnt boycott PB, I just chose not to play for a while. Once I realized the price increase was good for lottery players I started playing again. I dont think it will be the case for MM because it will take at least a year for someone to win a jackpot and I just wont be interested.

Reply #13

Ronnie316 — Wed, 17 Jul 2013 13:11:46 GMT

Its just another government made disaster in the making. PBs sweet spot is supported by ticket price NOT increased odds. Lottery players understand odds and gravitate towardBETTER odds.

Reply #12

Tatototman65 — Wed, 17 Jul 2013 13:10:19 GMT

I boycotted Powerball (one of the few who are still commited) and I already have boycotted MegaMillions

Reply #11

Jon D — Wed, 17 Jul 2013 13:01:51 GMT

Another thing to consider is the starting Jackpot value and if it'll have minimum increases. Reports are coming out that MM will have new $15M starting value and adding minimum $5M increases.

Here is a comparison table of the old and new prize structure:

_ MEGA Millions $1 _ MM New Matrix

Total Return Prizes Odds 1 in Match Total Return Prizes Odds 1 in

50.00% $55,870,000 175,711,536 5 + Mega 50.00% $84,350,000 258,890,850

18.20% $250,000 3,904,701 5 of 5 17.42% $1,000,000... [ More ]

Reply #10

maringoman — Wed, 17 Jul 2013 11:18:24 GMT

I promised to quit HotLotto when the matrix changed last May and so far I have not bought one ticket despite many opportunities to. I shall be doing the same for MM when the matrix changes become reality.

I would love to encourage people to boycott the new MM but I lack the resources and the know-how to be successful.

Reply #9

jjtheprince — Wed, 17 Jul 2013 10:59:17 GMT

It will still be far too easy to win for some, and you will still very rarely see jackpots over $100 million. It's still going to stay $1 per ticket right

Reply #8

weshar75 — Tue, 16 Jul 2013 19:58:25 GMT

With those higher odds than powerball looks like my run with powerball will continue and I will be playing powerball more often than mega millions. On to year 17 in powerball playing.-weshar75

Reply #7

Stack47 — Tue, 16 Jul 2013 15:37:15 GMT

The odds of winning the jackpot are reduced to 1 in 258.9 million; however, odds of winning any prize will increase to 1 in 14.

Somebody should edit the Wikipedia article because the jackpot odds are increased and the bonus number odds are decreased.

It looks like MUSL was trying to find a way to create a $1 million secondary prize without raising the price of a ticket and give their players who never win anything a chance of winning something. The decision of paying $1 for matching the b... [ More ]

Reply #6

Ronnie316 — Tue, 16 Jul 2013 13:30:37 GMT

Im going to buy more PB tickets.

Reply #5

billionaire2bee — Tue, 16 Jul 2013 13:21:36 GMT

OMG its going up from 175 million to 1 to 258.9 million to 1....Wow I think I'll only play 1 ticket in every 5 or 10 draws

Reply #4

Stack47 — Tue, 16 Jul 2013 04:28:45 GMT

The odds against matching all 5 numbers is 17,259,390 to 1, but the good news is if you beat those extraordinary odds, it's only 14 to 1 against winning the jackpot

Reply #3

Saylorgirl — Tue, 16 Jul 2013 04:16:49 GMT

The new prize structure is on Wikipedia. I don't like that you will only get $1 for matching the mega ball and $2 for matching the mega ball and one number. But if you match all 5 numbers it is $1,000,000.

Reply #2

grwurston — Tue, 16 Jul 2013 02:17:19 GMT

It's changing in October. Here's the link to the story.

https://www.lotterypost.com/news/261291

Reply #1

BuyLow — Tue, 16 Jul 2013 00:00:03 GMT

Where did you hear this? Was there no further info at the source? I haven't heard that only knew they are changing the odds, for the worse to players.

Mega Millions Lottery

hsg2000 — Mon, 15 Jul 2013 23:41:36 GMT

I heard that mega million lotto will be changing shortly. Can you tell us about the new MM Lotto and when will it change.

What will be the new lotto look like and how will it be played.

Thanks