News writer
What if you didn’t need to win the Mega Millions jackpot to feel like a winner? A recent shake-up to one of America’s favorite lottery games is quietly padding players’ pockets in a big way — and Florida just got a taste of how sweet those non-jackpot wins can be.
The game’s new format is already rewriting what it means to "almost win," and the numbers from the Sunshine State might make you rethink skipping that next ticket.
Bigger non-jackpot winnings all around
Since the changes to the Mega Millions game took effect on April 5, 2025, there have been four total drawings. During that time, players in Florida and all over the country have won more in non-jackpot prizes compared to what they would have won under the previous rules and payouts.
This bigger payout can be linked to the addition of the non-jackpot prize multiplier on every ticket. This new built-in multiplier feature automatically boosts non-jackpot prizes by 2X, 3X, 4X, 5X, or 10X.
Over 400% increase in non-jackpot prizes in Florida
To highlight how important that multiplier can be, lottery officials in Florida released data showing the non-jackpot winners during the first drawing. They then compared the winnings under the new prize matrix and what they would have been if the old prize matrix was still in place.
For that first drawing under the new prize structure on April 8, there were bigger prizes for Florida players, even without any player hitting the jackpot. During that draw, there were 217,904 winners from Florida.
Of those winners, lottery officials said they handed out $4.32 million in non-jackpot prizes to their players. However, under the previous prize matrix, there would have only been $840,628 in prizes handed out.
That means there was an increase of over 400% in payouts thanks to the new prize matrix. In addition, the new game rules have contributed over $3 million to education in Florida, which shows the value of the lottery to both players and communities.
What will the new changes bring to players?
When looking at these changes to the Mega Millions game, the new format definitely offers bigger prizes at every non-jackpot tier, better odds overall, a bigger starting jackpot, faster-growing jackpots, no break-even prizes, and improved odds to win the jackpot — and four drawings in, it already happened.
Yes, the Mega Millions makeover saw its first jackpot winner during the last drawing on Saturday, April 19, the fourth drawing under the new rules. One lucky ticket purchased in Ohio matched all the winning numbers to win the estimated $112 million jackpot.
With all these changes, we all know that the price of the ticket increased also — to $5 per play. This happened to be the game’s second price adjustment since the first ticket was sold in Florida more than 11 years ago.
Some good news for players though. The last price increase and change to some of the game’s rules happened in 2017. Since those changes took place, we have seen seven Mega Millions winners of billion-dollar jackpots. There have also been over 1,200 players that have become millionaires, which is an average of three millionaires per week.
Enjoy playing the Florida Lottery, and please remember to play responsibly.
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