The overall odds of winning the game's jackpot will change to 1-in-258,890,850 from the current 1-in-175,711,536. This change is expected to lead to larger jackpot growth.  Florida finally get Mega Millions and then they decide to increase the odds. I will just stick to playing the regularFlorida Lottery games with better odds like Lotto, Mega Money and Fantasy 5.

Why not think of it as lowering your odds of winning your dollar back instead of increasing your odds of being a multi-millionaire.

The odds against matching 5 + 0 became four times harder, but once that happens, the odds against winning the jackpot are much better. It goes without saying players are after the jackpot, but with odds of 40 to 1 against winning anything, they can almost expect to win nothing. At least the new format gives a $5 player a 3 to 1 chance of at least winning a buck.

 to the proposed changes. Once my MM season ticket expires for the year 2013 I will not bother with this game again. Bah! I don't think there is enough time before the year is over to recoup the money I've spent those 10 years I have played this game religiously 

So if you get 5 wb & you megaply you win $5 million

Mega Millions tickets normally may be purchased up to 13 weeks (26 draws) in advance. However, to prepare for these changes, the Pennsylvania Lottery must temporarily limit the game's advance play feature.

After the July 23 drawing, the number of advance draws available for purchase will continue to decrease by one until Oct. 18, the last Mega Millions drawing under the current game design.

Mega Millions tickets for the updated version of the game will go on sale beginning Oct. 19. At that time, players will again be able to purchase up to 13 weeks (26 draws) of advance-play tickets.

so is this just for pennsylvania or is it for everyone? they do not say. while pennsylvania redues their machines can players in other states still play the advanced draws?

No not really only if the mega plier ball says 5 then you get 5million. if it says 4 you get 4million if it says 3 you get 3million all the way to i think 2 for two million. this is my best guess for you.

I haven't seen specifics on the new MM for 2nd prize megaplier yet.

Currently with MM, the 3rd-9th prizes are multiplied by the megaplier value, but the 2nd prize is always megaplied 4X $250,000 = $1,000,000.

Will the new MM be *always* $5M for megaplier 2nd prize (5X) or will it actually be $1M times the megaplier value? This still needs to be clarified.

Wow!  How sneaky.  This is actually going to be a better version than the current one.  I can't believe how many people have missed this.

I'm not going to explain why.  I figured it out and you can too.

This is BS...I have already stopped buying MM.

Besides avid lotto players, they know most people who will buy the MM tix will have no clue the odds have increased so much.

Come on now, you really never expected to recoup your loses with out winning a jackpot, did you?  You can still win a jackpot with the new matrix while losing less per play. 

I've already boycotted!

Does it really matters what the odds are when asked about them half of the average players think they are one in a billion already.

Yep, you probably can't judge how well the new MM game will do based on the more informed subset of responses of LP members.

This change has more to do with psychology than it does with statistics. Giving more money and more winners to lower tier prizes to provide encouragement, pumping up the megaplier to a juicy $5M to entice more megaplier sales. While there will be fewer winning jackpots per year, most people won't care.

It's all states.  In Idaho you can only purchase 5 weeks ahead, so it'll start later, but the end result in all states is that you can only purchase tickets under the current matrix up until the day it changes over.  Then you can buy tickets with the new expanded matrix.

CBF:           

but, only avid stupid players will B "LEFT"!

Yep, winning a jackpot only matter to those who win them.  Winning that dollar is going mean more to players than whether someone they don't know and never will know becomes a multi-millionare.

Yeah, and did you know there is a Santa Barbara in Honduras?

Increasing the jackpot odds by an astonishing 83 million – from 175,711,536 to 258,890,850?  LOL

Everyone we know plays for the jackpot – not the lower tier prizes, so it doesn’t matter what the overall odds will be.

Before these changes the jackpot odds were already ridiculously long.  We seldom played the game and we've never won anything. 

Now with the odds being 83 million longer, it doesn’t matter how big the jackpots get. They can keep it because we absolutely will not play.  Greed has gotten the best of the people who run MM.

We, and other people we know, stopped playing MM in May when the initial announcement was made that the jackpot odds were getting substantially worse.

We know this will sound odd to people, but we don’t aspire to win an outrageous-sized jackpot, so we made a point not to play when the jackpot was big.

The bottom line is that we don’t let the hype and greed drive our lotto purchases. We’re perfectly okay with winning $5 million or so after taxes.

Lol. Good point

Good point, RJOh. Sounds like they're targeting the average player with this, too. They really think players are chumps:

Megaplier to be expanded

The Mega Millions multi-state lottery game is being redesigned to offer bigger starting jackpots and better overall odds beginning Oct. 22.

The overall odds of winning the game's jackpot will change to 1-in-258,890,850 from the current 1-in-175,711,536. This change is expected to lead to larger jackpot growth.

Players in the redesigned game will choose their first five numbers from a pool of 75, up from the current 56. The group of numbers in the Mega Ball pool will shrink from 46 to 15.

Don't care what they do. I'll always see it as a 1:1 chance. Win or you don't.  When PB went from 195 to 175, the jackpots still went up. It did'nt get easier. Most of the time i don't even hit a 1:3 odd scratcher.

Come to think of of it, I can't wait to see the first post about a system for a 75 number matrix.

I quit playing Powerball a long time ago and I really don't play Mega Millions anymore either. The change to the game will make it easier not to buy tickets.

I do like the fact that they offer a million dollars for second prize but the odds stink for that as well.

Now instead of odds like being stuck by lightning while being eaten by a bear, it's more like being struck by lightning while being eat by a bear while in the middle of Death Valley when it is raining!

I was once a fan of big jackpots........but now its just getting ridiculous, how can you take a game with with impossible odds of winning and make the odds worse and try to sell that. At some point our elected officials have to step in and stop this nonsense. It's getting way it out of hand.  I know at the end of the day it is my my decision to play but I would like someone who represents the people to stand up and say look this isnt  right. I would rather there be 100  Million dollar winners than 1 one hundred million dollar winner any day of the week. Rather than focusing on bigger jackpots the lottery should be focused on making more millionaires. I'm sure the majority of players would agree.

Eventually people will wise up about MM new ridiculous odds, and when they do I suspect increasing numbers of people will migrate to playing PB instead.  After all, the PB jackpots will still be large enough for a person to live comfortably and while still long their odds of winning will be better too.

Well without getting into which game has better odds at each level, please keep this in mind pb players. The new mm game will still have better jackpot odds for a $2 bet which would be somewhere in the vicinity of 125 million to 1 compared to pb at 175 million to one. Food for thought.

 Most people wont know the odds have changed until they see that nobody ever wins the jackpot. 

I think they will ultimately be accused of cheating in order to keep all the big money and giving crumbs.

Since PB costs $2 and MM still only costs $1, it's pretty much a tossup between them.  I'll probably opt to pay $1 less instead of playing the slightly better odds of PB.

I'll simplify my last reply. Pb has better jackpot odds for one line of play while mm has better jackpot odds for same amount of money played. Hope that clears it up a bit.

LOL  You're no statistician.

Really somewhere In the vicinity of 125 million to 1 compared to 175 million to 1.....all sense is lost when someone tries to rationalise those odds.  They both are impossible In my opinion to win at this point.

Is anyone really a fan of having politicians take over running the lotteries?  Have you seen their changes?  Pay out less prize money so profits will go up.  Not really the best marketing strategy.

Lots of folks do urge lotteries to give away one hundred $1 million prizes instead of a $100 million jackpot.  But then, those folks don't play for $1 million prizes.  That prize level doesn't gets many folks off the couch.  There are already games out there that offer prizes of that size.  There are people who  love those games, but they don't bring in the numbers of players that MM or PB can attract.

Does anyone know that PB already agrees that there should be more winners of $1 million and $2 million?  Does anyone know that PB creates 400 to 500 millionaires every year in the New Powerball game?  Probably not.  Few folks care, unless they win that prize. 

In fact, if PB decided to award only $1 million prizes, the game would quickly collapse into a smaller game (the kind that now exist) and it would NOT be able to create the 400 to 500 millionaires each year.

The jackpot odds in these games are such that winning is a matter of fate; not a matter of "strategy".  You can "play" for other prizes at lower odds, but for the jackpot, you can only get in the game and wait to see if the Universe thinks it's your turn.  The new MM jackpot odds can be expected to drop one, maybe two winners, per year (going from about 12 jackpot hits per year into the 10 to 11 range (on average).

Ninety nine point five percent of players don't care about odds, only the size of the jackpot and price of a ticket.

Since I play the same string of numbers on both Powerball and Mega Millions, I don't care if the odds go to 1 billion to 1.

I think it's exciting.

    And I'm glad the price stays the same.

 Only 15 Mega Balls huh?

At least that way when MM draws a winning combination with any numbers in the range of 60-75, you'll know if anyone won the jackpot, it wasn't you.

Got it thanks JBL

Theirs one born every minute.I think it was P.T.Barnum who first said this.

Well lots and lots of interesting point but surprisingly people play big jackpots just for the day dream of it not actually believing to win. To make my point even thoes that won when the odds were lower don't  even remember to check thier winning ticket but they always remember to line up arround the block and play just like everyone else. Before you are more likely to be struck by lightining and now you are more likely to p..p a live monkey in the toilet. But again many women give birth without even knowing they are pregnant so some good chance you can still beat that new odd. Mega million is desperate because they are being crushed by powerball success but mega million has a new trick up its sleeves to come back and be noticed. Mega millions always break the usa lottery record and with this new plan mega million will be the first to reach a one billion dollar jackport by christmas because people won't be able to win it easily. And yes there is still going to be lucky quick picks even if the odds are one in a billion don't mess with florida quick pick machines they are still the best in the world in cracking any new game so i won't be surprise if the first winner of the new game comes from Miami florida thoes folks there are amazing.lol

"You can still win a jackpot with the new matrix while losing less per play."

Right now they expect to pay out 50 cents for every dollar that take in. With the new matrix they'll expect to pay out 50 cents for every dollar they take in. Don't be fooled just because your odds of winning the minimum prize will be better. There's no such thing as a free lunch.

With the current game when they collect $175 million they pay $87.5 million back to the winners. With the new game they'll collect $258 million and pay back $129 million. That's almost 1.5 times as much money, but it will be split by almost 3 times as many winners. That means that the average prize will be half of what it is now.

If you pick your own numbers, I wonder how many bets will be on the bet slip?

It's hard enough to pick your own on the current slips. Maybe 2 or 3 on a slip?

Or maybe they want people to just play auto picks.

Thanks Chuck.

It's good to get the official word once in a while.

Wish you'd weigh in more often.

As I remember the Ohio's Lot'O Play game had 100 numbers and the play slips had plenty of room for five play boards.  There shouldn't be a problem doing the same with 90 numbers.

 Yea, or eaten by a Polar bear in Death Valley during a snowstorm.

Despite these unrealistic odds, when the jackpot equals the national debt because no one has hit it, and then I DO, I am going to continue to work!  Life will not change because of having 16 trillion dollars. oh, and also I'll go to Disney... and get a new car... house, can't forget a new house.  I like those infinity pools, but think it needs to be on an ocean front... I always wanted to be a world wide traveler... I might cut down work to 6 hours a day.  Did I mention buying gold.  I should buy a few hundred million worth of gold coins... Did I mention buying a RV?  Heck why not splurge a little on one of those triple expanding double-deckers, I think they are around 5000 square feet or so.  Yep, I will still be me, you can count on that.  I can still get a lot done working 4 hours a day.  It's probably all I really work anyway.  Maybe I'll buy the block around my workplace and setup a helipad so I can fly-in by helicopter every morning.  Just for the sake of avoiding traffic, you know.  It shouldn't really be much of an inconvenience considering I will only be there 2 hours a day anyway...

Sounds like a plan....except for that nonsense about working.

Inspite of the higher odds I don't expect many jackpots of a billion dollars or more.  With its $1 price for one line the new matrix will attract players who would pay $1 for a chance in a pick5 game with a jackpot of $100K and players who don't want to pay $2 for a chance to win a multi-million dollars jackpot which should help it exceed the sales amounts of PB.

If there are many billion dollars plus jackpots, look for MM to do what PB did when it thought a half billion dollar jackpot was large and establish a cap that distributes a potion of such large jackpots to all the top winners. 

This 5/75+1/15 format is something new and it's hard to tell what will happen.

I don't care what they do.  When you buy a ticket, you are just buying a chance at a dream.  If the price stays the same, I will keep playing it.  Maybe if the price changes to 3$ a ticket for the megaplier, I will play every now and then.   I don't play PB anymore.  I did an experiment and got burnt pretty good.   I bought 100 PB tickets with the bonus and won basically nothing.  I did this three times in a row when the jackpot was really big.  Got three numbers 1 time.  Now I just play MM  one or two lines for at least 2 draws.  Happier with that.

I just wish they stop watering down the games while trying to entice people to spend more money with more opportunities to win money(added dollar options).  Its nice to dream big every once and a while I agree. But these games will always be unrealistic to win.

I bought 100 PB tickets with the bonus and won basically nothing.  I did this three times in a row when the jackpot was really big.  Got three numbers 1 time.

So you spent $900 for the three drawings? wow. God bless you Littleoldlady. I am a little curious though. Did you wheel your numbers or did you have a self picked set of numbers or did you do quickpicks? thanks. 

I personally play one or two lines with powerplay and for advanced drawings.

I've tried that experiment on paper many times and never lost a cent.  What made you think doing it for real would have profitable outcome?  On paper I usually got back about 10% of what it would have cost.

As a premium member you could have posted fifty lines on the prediction board for every drawing leading up to the big jackpot and had a pretty good respresentation what would happen in the real world.

Littleoldlady said: "I don't play PB anymore.  I did an experiment and got burnt pretty good.   I bought 100 PB tickets with the bonus and won basically nothing.  I did this three times in a row when the jackpot was really big.  Got three numbers 1 time."

omg. ouch. Herein lies the reason why we seldom played the multistate games - the longshot odds of winning.

Reminds us of our neighbor's son who works as a trainer for a professional sports team.  A team player recently spent $10K on quick picks for a multistate lotto game with an enormous jackpot.  He won less than $200.  Nobody won the jackpot, so the jackpot ballooned for the next drawing.  Then the player spent $15K for quick picks for the next drawing and he won less than $100.

There are, of course, several ways to play the new matrix.

My method is to take out the multiplier.  I am sure that I am not the only one who thought of this.

For the current game that will cost you $44 for  true 3.8 million to one odds at the jackpot ($46 less the $2 rebate)

For the new game that is $14 for true 18 million to one odds ($15 less the $1 rebate)

This, of course means that I will have to be more disciplined and wait for the high Jackpots that this game is designed for.  Probably other people will do this too.  You just have to put aside a dollar a draw until the jackpot is up to the level you are shooting for.  With this game, that should be pretty high.

Beats playing $66 ($70-$4) for a full Powerball ticket at 5 million to 1 odds

The states are really trying to entice people to play the local games, MM and PB are there just to peak their interest.

I just wish they would not change the games. They are already making huge profits as it is.

They say it's gonna get "Better".  Is that better for them or us.

For them. The house usually wins.

aman

I think the players who were happy for years playing MM when they could win a couple bucks after spending forty are going to be thrilled with this new matrix when they win a buck after only spending fifthteen.  

The only other game in my state that will do that is Rolling Cash5 (5/39) and some similar games in other states only give you a free play.

I will happily pay a buck for a chance to win millions, though I am still unlikely to play Megaplier.

That's one of the problems people forget to factor in the MM and PB odds equation, I use to play PB I've since shy away from it due to the $2 bet. I rather play for $1 increase my odds of winning even though its a small chance. Even lowering the multiplier is good move in my book! MM all the way.

$20 PB=10 tickets

$20 MM=20 tickest   and lesser tier prize!!!!!!!

Mega Millions has provided a lot of people astronomical life change opportunities.  When their Jackpots sar again, many of the same critics now, will plop down money to join the chance to win MILLIONS. And a chance at life style change.

Parhaps, but WHEN wiil the jackpot "sar" again???? A year? Two years? Ever?

No one cares about the "lesser tier prize!!!!!!" When your playing for $166 million instead of $13 it worth an extra $1. to play the big game and NOT the small mm game. 

$13 Million  Tue, Jul 23, 2013

$166 Million

    Small

$13 Million  Tue, Jul 23,  2013

BIG GAME

Can anyone predict when MM will see a $100 million jackpot? Certain NOT this year.... Maybe next???

I think powerball is taking all the fun away from having 100 million dollar jackpots. I used to be excited to see a 100+ million dollar jackpots but now I'm like no body wins at 100 million ill wait to its 250 or more that's when it's starts to get exciting. In my opinion mega has become the second tier jackpot game and doesn't need super jackpots.

Im glad they dont need em, cuz they sure dont have em..........

With PB....... Its easy to see that once the jackpot gets above $80 million the sales start to pick up, and on this draw ALONE it went $25 million higher. 

The point (elephant in the room) is jackpot size in LESS than a month is at $141 million. From June 26, to July 20, we have a $144 million up for grabs and I think Thrifty can win it all on this draw with a $2. purchase.

With MM launguishing below $100 million for 18 draws in a row, sales wont pick up anytime soon. 

Perhaps in a year from now everyone will be happy with a $800 million jackpot that no one can seem to win?

Up until its jackpot reaches $90 Millions, PB jackpots are under funded by ticket sales so they are playing catch-up from having started their jackpots at $40 Millions and increasing them by at least $10 Millions until they're won.

MegaMillions will take a more conservative approach by starting its jackpots at $15 Millions and increasing them by at least $5 Millions until they're won but even its jackpots could be under funded at the lower amounts.

Don't see how they will fund the starting 15mill when ticket sales are so low they can only raise the recent jackpot by 1mill . Guess their taking a gamble too. They better pray no one hits for a few months.

I wonder if they buy insurance?

You know, like the jacuzzi retailer who tells his customers if they buy a jacuzzi between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and we get 6" of snow on New Year's Day, their jacuzzi is free.  The retailer buys insurance that pays out if it snows 6" on NYD.

Actually the starting jackpots of $12M aren't fully funded by ticket sales now which is why they are increased by so little at the begining.  In fact after one drawing the starting jackpot wasn't increased at all.

I'm sure they have something in place to cover themselves if the 5/75 +1/15 matrix doesn't slow down the top winners.

This half baked idea by mega millions is beyond lame. For players who use systems like myself for picking numbers, now we have to worry about analysising 25 more numbers in the main pool? 75 numbers total?!! That is insane! On top of that, when the new format starts, that means all the historically data from all the drawings becomes WORTHLESS! I am done with Mega Millions. I live in Maryland. I might as well wait for the jackpot for Multi Match to get to around a million or so and play that. The odds of a 6/43 game for 2 dollars a  play is drastically beter then playing a 5/75 game just to try to win the 2nd tier prize of a million forget the jackpot.

MegaMillions have had this matrix since 06/24/05.  If you haven't won a major prize by now, maybe you are over rating the worth of historical data. 

Besides, most states added MM and PB when players lost interest in their local games, if you are now thinking about playing the local games more, then having MM and PB is going to finally help your state's bottom line.

They should make the phone call right now..............

Good luck to the Mega Millions participants in this updated game. However, my 2nd version of the California Super Lotto Plus contract will expire on Saturday October 19th, 2013 as part of my current event.

"I'm sure they have something in place to cover themselves"

It's a little thing called probability. Right now they typically have sales of $14 million or so for the starting jackpot, which gives them about half of what they need to fund the starting jackpot. Selling 14 million tickets resullts in about a 1 in 12.5 chance of having a winner. Taking a quick look, it seems that there have only been 2 times in the last 2 years where they had a winner on the first or second drawing of a roll.

There's a few other tools they can use as well.

PB has 2% of sales going to a reserve fund, to help cover shortages on early Jackpot wins. The new MM could also incorporate a fixed reserve percentage as well.

They can also increase the annuity from 26 years to 30 years to make fully funded happen earlier.

Currently, MM is fully funded after the 1st roll.(2nd draw) PB is fully funded after the 5th roll.(6th draw) If the new MM keeps about the same 32% of sales for Jackpot pool, and sales remain about the same, it would be fully funded at about the 6th roll.(7th draw)

Or if the annuity is stretched to 30 years, it would be fully funded on the 5th roll (6th draw) just like PB, at around $40M JP range.

we just got it here in fl how sad

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I think there will be the usual frenzy when the MM gets over $300 million, but after a month or so with no winners, people will become disillusioned and will stop buying tickets.  I expect jackpot winners NO MORE than 3 times a year. 

This is going to bring a whole new 'head' to how people think of lotteries.  Maybe people will stop playing MM and PB entirely. 

The state lottery commissions may be biting themselves in the a**.

Im thinking once a year. But I could be wrong.

We have a wide range of predictions on the new MM.

The current MM has about 12 winning jackpots per year.

These are the predictions I've seen of number of jackpots per year for the new MM:

Ronnie316 - 1
haveagreatday! - 3
chuck32 - 10-11

Based on the numbers, I predict 8 jackpots per year for the new MM.

I think there will be 1 or 2 winning jackpots per year and it will piss off most players and they will quit playing MM,if they haven't already quit.

When I had to drive out of state and stand in long lines to play PB and BigGame I got to know more about the people that played those type of games and was always surprised by the number of new players that were playing the games for the first time every time. 

Now that the games are available everywhere and I never have to stand in line I feel like I'm the only one playing and if I stop they will fold but I know that's not true.  Every one who has played for years could stop and I doubt if they would be missed, there's a crop of new players coming of age every month and they haven't had time to get tire of trying to win.

It might be good for some because they will get higher jackpots however it will be more difficult to win the game. Players should develp strategies to increase their chances of winning. Therefore playing constantly is a must so that we will not miss our chance to win the jackpot prize.

That's a wide range of predictions...

If 12 is the average and it drops to 8, while at the same time the JP's surge extraordinarily high a little more often... well, then... I can see the bean counter's method to their madness and maybe that's not soooo bad  

Frankly, does it really make that much of difference in the grand scheme of things as to how much harder it got for the JP prize?... its nearly impossible to hit the JP in the first place... it just will become <insert colorful metaphor here> more impossible.

While I'm not pleased over that, its still worth a buck to play for a shot at winning "MEGA MILLIONS"  and lately Mega Millions has not be living up to its name on a regular basis compared to PB IMO.

More like "MINI Millions"   compared to PB... Not that I'm opposed to being a mini millionaire

Two months to go.  No matter how it goes this will shake things up.  I wonder if PB will have to react with some changes.  cheers.