PIERRE, S.D. (KELO) — Some big changes are coming soon for the Mega Millions lottery game, whether or not the South Dakota Lottery Commission or any other state that sells the tickets agrees with them.
Norm Lingle, the South Dakota Lottery’s executive director, on Thursday outlined what’s ahead. He said the changes will take effect April 5, 2025.
They include: The $2 ticket price that’s been in place since 2017 will go up to $5 starting that day.
As part of the ticket price increase, the current $1 “Megaplier” option that multiplies the value of nonjackpot prizes by up to five times will be dropped. Replacing it will be a new computer-generated multiplier for each and every ticket that increases the value of nonjackpot prizes by as much as 10 times.
The ticket grid will also slightly change, and so will the odds, with both improving a bit in favor of the player. The odds of winning a jackpot currently are one in 302.6 million. With the change, the new odds for a jackpot will be one in 278.4 million. The odds of winning any kind of prize also will slightly improve, from 1 in 24 to 1 in 22.15.
The minimum jackpot currently starts at $20 million. The minimum will increase to $50 million after the changes take effect next year.
The commission’s chair, Jason Ahrendt of Sioux Falls, asked what would happen if the changes weren’t adopted in South Dakota. Lingle said the Mega Millions game would end after the last draw under the current rules April 4, 2025.
Mega Million sales totaled about $9.5 million in South Dakota during the past fiscal year, according to Lingle, and taking that away would affect the bottom line.
“It would be a financial impact to the Lottery and our transfers,” Lingle said.
He reported that unaudited figures show lottery sales were up just slightly in South Dakota for the 12 months of July 2023 through June 2024 in comparison to the previous year. So were transfers to the state treasury.
Instant ticket sales totaled $48.6 million, up 0.77%, and the lottery transferred $7.26 million, which was 2.65% more.
Jackpot lotto sales totaled $38.1 million, up 3.05%, with transfers totaling $12.53 million, up 8.18%.
The state’s share from the privately owned video lottery terminals reached $163.61 million, an increase of 0.37%, with $163.9 million transferred, up 0.37%.
“Very pleased with what we saw this last fiscal year,” Lingle said. “Good job by everybody.”
South Dakota did better than many states’ lotteries during the past year, according to Lingle. He cautioned however that reaching those same sales levels in the current year would be “tough.”
