Whether or not anybody wins the billion-dollar Powerball jackpot on Saturday, at least one of the losers might already be known: Mega Millions.
Powerball tickets, valued at $2 apiece, are selling quickly, as lottery slips tend to do around ten-figured advertised rewards. In contrast, the next Mega Millions jackpot on Tuesday is a comparatively modest $80 million.
The two jackpots might differ by hundreds of millions — but the figure that helps explain why is much smaller.
Three dollars. That’s how much Mega Millions augmented its ticket cost in April, more than doubling from $2 to $5.
And it appears that lottery ticket purchasers, at least, really notice that difference — especially in an economy where Americans, tired of the high cost of living, are conserving every dollar.
Mega Millions tickets previously surpassed Powerball tickets in 2024; sales for the two were roughly equal the first three months of this year, even though Powerball has one more draw per week.
But since Mega Millions’ 150% price boost in April, Powerball ticket purchases have surged way ahead. Mega Millions has sold 495 million tickets since the April 8th adjustment, bringing in $2.5 billion in earnings. During the same stretch Powerball has sold just over 2 billion tickets, bringing in $4.1 billion, according to figures compiled by lottery watchdog LottoReport.com utilizing official reports.
Powerball sales are likely being assisted as lottery players have been hesitant to spend the extra few bucks, stated Victor Matheson, professor of economics and a specialist on the enterprise of gambling at the College of Holy Cross.
Americans have been mainly concentrated on worth for outlay after prices have climbed due to years of high inflation rates. Sales at Walmart, for example, have expanded as more shoppers aim for its rock-bottom costs. Holiday buying is costing more for less. And even when prices don’t seem higher, you still might be obtaining less for your money.
But Powerball’s present sales leap isn’t as straightforward as one commodity pricing itself out of the market, Matheson remarked.
The greater ticket sales translate into bigger jackpots, which then attract more ticket sales. Part of that is the change in buying patterns, part of it is misfortune for Mega Millions, which has not had as many long streaks between big prizes that boost the magnitude of the jackpot.
Matheson said the games’ probabilities suggest that the Mega Millions should accumulate large jackpots more frequently than Powerball, even with bargain-seeking lottery players. But so far, it hasn’t turned out that way.
“I will mention that Mega Millions has become a bit unlucky at the same time Powerball has become fortunate,” said Matheson.
This weekend is the second instance the Powerball top prize has reached $1 billion this year. Its top prize reached $1.8 billion in early September. That’s given it an advantage over Mega Millions, which reached near $1 billion just once this year, when its top prize hit $980 million on November 14.
But even then when Mega Millions had a large prize advantage, it often sold fewer tickets than Powerball.
Mega Millions sold 23.5 million tickets in the days preceding the $980 million drawing on November 14, according to LottoReport.com. Powerball sold slightly more tickets, 23.6 million, although its jackpot of $546 million was just above half the size.
Mega Millions increased its price in the expectation that it would showcase more regular large jackpots and thus generate greater sales.
“Jackpots are anticipated to expand quicker and reach higher dollar sums more regularly in the new game,” the consortium managing the game stated in April. The consortium did not reply to inquiries from CNN on Friday about its sales since the ticket cost boost.
But because Mega Millions brings in so much more on each ticket, even at a slower sales rate, its long-term prospects are fine, Matheson stated.
Much superior, in fact, than the prospects for Powerball ticket buyers this weekend.
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