BIG Changes Coming to Idaho’s Favorite Lottery Game on April 8 and You’ll Love Them

How often do you dream about winning the lottery, walking into your boss’s office and saying “it’s been real, but I’m out of here?” If the answer is frequently, you’ll be excited to know that your odds of winning one of the most popular lottery games in Idaho are about to get better! 

Major changes are coming to the Mega Millions game starting April 8. 

READ MORE: Strike it Rich at One of Boise's 15 Luckiest Lottery Locations

Has Anyone from Idaho Ever Won the Mega Millions Jackpot?

Idaho may not have the biggest number of multi-state jackpot winners, but it does have a great history with both the Mega Millions and Powerball. What makes Idaho particularly interesting when it comes to the latter is the fact that TWO of Idaho’s five Powerball winners bought their winning tickets at the very same Jackson’s location. 

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The Jackson’s store at 2728 S Orchard Street sold Pam Hiatt her $87.5 million in 1995. 10 years later, Brad Duke walked into the same store and bought a ticket that would become a $220.3 million jackpot winner. We’ve rounded up the story of the other three Idaho Powerball winners HERE. 

When it comes to the Mega Millions, only ONE Idahoan has been lucky enough to hit the big one! In 2011, Holly Lahti, a single mom from Rathdrum discovered she had one of the two winning tickets for a $380 million Mega Millions jackpot. She chose not to appear at the Idaho Lottery’s press conference announcing the win, but did receive $190 million after splitting the jackpot with a couple in Washington State. 

Lathi laid low after her win. She ended up relocating to California to protect her daughters from the media circus surrounding her Idaho home. She used her winnings to pay for private school tuition for her daughters, bought her own home, took a vacation and bought her dad a new home after his was destroyed by a fire. 

Idahoans Will Soon Have Better Odds at Winning a Mega Millions Jackpot

According to CNBC, the Mega Millions will be making changes to the multi-state lottery beginning with the draw on April 8. Those changes include: 

• Starting jackpot jumps from $20 million to $50 million 
• Larger non-jackpot prizes 
• Retiring the $1 Megaplier feature with a random multiplier added to every ticket 
• Reducing the number of Mega all pool to 24 

Lottery officials say that the last one will change the odds of winning the jackpot from 1 in 302.6 million to 1 in 290.5 million. 

The changes also mean that the price of a ticket will jump from $2 to $5. The changes kick in for the draw on Tuesday, April 8.

Is it worth it? That’s completely up to you. There are some days where we feel totally justified in giving up the money we would’ve spent at Dutch Bros for the opportunity to quit our jobs and never work another day in our lives!