Mega Millions lottery ticket price and jackpots to jump next year

Michelle Majocha figures the odds are pretty good that more than doubling the cost of the Mega Millions lottery ticket from $2 to $5 next April won’t help sales of a lottery game that offers a jackpot of millions.

With the news this week the consortium directing the 45-state Mega Millions drawing will raise prices for a chance to win millions, Majocha said she knows from her 29 years at Community Market in Harrison that other price hikes elicited complaints.

“People didn’t like it when the Cash 5 went up. People don’t like paying the $2 for it,” said Majocha, a front office clerk who sells lottery tickets.

Even though it’s been about a year since the Pennsylvania Lottery raised the price of the Cash 5 ticket, Majocha said some customers still tell her they won’t buy it because of the extra cost.

The Mega Millions Consortium said in a statement the increase in ticket prices will lead to “improved odds to win jackpots, bigger jackpots more frequently, larger starting pots and faster growing jackpots.”

While the jackpot for Tuesday’s drawing reached a life-changing $129 million for the winner, it’s still far less than the $1.6 billion jackpot won in August 2023, according to the Mega Millions website. Since 2017, a Mega Millions officials said more than 1,200 players have become millionaires — an average of three millionaires per week.

The Mega Millions usually attract the store’s regulars, Majocha said. She sees customers buying $10 to $20 worth of tickets at one time. Every once in awhile, Majocha said she’ll chip in with a group to buy tickets when the jackpot spikes.

Jamie Bazala is a lottery player five days a week at the Shop ‘n Save supermarket on Greensburg’s East Pittsburgh Street.

She spends $2 per day, alternating between purchases of Mega Millions and Powerball tickets for her and husband, and buys the same amount of tickets on behalf of her 23-year-old son and his fiancee.

“I do it religiously,” she said. “It doesn’t matter if (the jackpot) is up high or down low.”

But that could change when the Mega Millions price hike takes effect.

“I think it’s stupid,” she said. “I don’t know if I’ll play it all the time.”

Joining in the conversation at the supermarket, Mary Fox of Hempfield said she usually buys a Mega Millions ticket twice a week. But she thinks she’ll do so less often when she has to pay $5.

Now, she pays $3 per ticket — spending an extra dollar for the Megaplier feature, which at least doubles non-jackpot winnings.

Fox has had limited luck winning.

“Once in a while I’ll hit it,” she said.

According to the Mega Millions Consortium, the game revision coming in April will include a built-in multiplier on every play, automatically improving every nonjackpot win.

At the Greensburg News Stand, owner Allan Leydic predicted the price hike will not go over well. Ticket buyers already have asked him if the $1, single number Megaplier, will jump in price, too, but the Mega Millions consortium has left them in the dark.

“People are going to be upset about it. Initially, it (price hike) will hurt us because they won’t want to pay it,” Lydic said.

But, after awhile, the customers will act as if the Mega Millions has always been $5, Lydic said.

At Graft Oil Co.’s Spee-D Mart in Irwin, assistant manager Glenda Uranker didn’t think the price would deter Mega Millions players.

“The Power Ball went up in price and people were still buying it. It’s not much more money,” Uranker said.

Austin Seger, an employee of Myrna’s Brew’ry Outlet in New Kensington, was shocked when he learned of the price hike.

“That’s over double the price now,” Seger said.

The promised increased odds and higher jackpots may be enough incentive to keep customers interested, but Seger will believe it when he sees it.

Seger said he only ever buys Mega Millions tickets when the jackpots are really high. Not surprisingly, Mega Millions sales in the store spike when the jackpots spike.

“I think it might turn some people off,” Seger said. “But then again, if prizes are bigger and chances of winning are higher, then maybe people will buy into it. My initial reaction is that it’ll turn people away.”

Roger Richey, a clerk at the Sunoco store at the corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and Oak Street in Irwin, said people were complaining about it, but that won’t stop them.

“People complain about scratch-off tickets when they are $20, $30, but you know that they’ll buy them,” said Richey.

The reluctance to play seems to vanish the higher the jackpot goes.

“When it hits a billion, people who don’t play come in and play,” Richey said.

Dean Bretzel of Salem, who usually buys a Mega Millions ticket twice a week, stopped at Hempfield’s Beer Arena to make his purchase Tuesday.

He said the planned jump in the ticket price is in keeping with the cost of other items, noting, “Everything else went up.”

Once the tickets become more costly, he said, he may wait until the jackpot is high before playing.

But, he said, “I guess if you want to win, you’ve got to spend the money to play it.”