Fewer Mega Millions tickets sold in Massachusetts after game change, but Lottery sees more cash

Fewer people are buying Mega Millions tickets in Massachusetts after new changes to the game took effect, but it's now bringing in a lot more cash for the Lottery.

Until Saturday, a Mega Millions ticket cost $2. Now they are $5, but the game says players have better odds of winning.

The Massachusetts State Lottery tells WBZ-TV that 100,297 total tickets were bought at $5 a play for Tuesday's drawing, when the jackpot was $54 million. That's nearly 30% fewer tickets than were bought for the April 4 drawing, which saw 142,170 tickets sold for $2 each in hopes of winning a $43 million jackpot.

The April 4 drawing had a "total wager amount" of $491,323, while the April 8 drawing saw wagers totaling $841,185. That's an increase of more than 71%, even with fewer tickets sold.

There were no big winners for Tuesday's Mega Millions drawing in Massachusetts. The winning numbers were 10-16-50-60-61 with a Mega Ball of 17.

Tickets that won $2,000 prizes were sold in Fall River and Sandisfield. A $1,500 winner was sold in Mashpee, and $1,000 winners were sold in Lawrence, Fitchburg and Mashpee. 

Mark William Bracken, the executive director of the Massachusetts Lottery, is hopeful the changes will contribute to increased interest between big jackpot runs. 

"As a result of the game's enhancements, including the built-in multiplier on all non-jackpot prizes, players took home more than double the amount in prizes compared to the previous drawing," Bracken said.  

Mega Millions changes

The odds are higher for winning the jackpot because the new game has removed one of the Mega Balls. Still, the chances of hitting the top prize are only 1 in 290,472,336, which closely resemble Powerball odds. 

The odds for winning any prize are now 1 in 23 instead of 1 in 24. All wins are worth at least $10, and there will be a random multiplier added to smaller prizes for each game.

"Players who had won $2 in the old game will now take home $10, $15, $20, $25 or $50 under this game," Joshua Johnston, lead director of the Mega Millions Consortium, said in a statement. "Those who had won $500 under the old rules will now take home $1,000; $1,500; $2,000; $2,500 or $5,000 in this new game."  

The next Mega Millions drawing is Friday, with an estimated jackpot of $72 million.