Mega Millions players will get slightly better odds and should start seeing more billion-dollar jackpots, but at a cost — literally — with tickets for the multistate lottery jumping in price to $5. The price for playing Mega Millions more than doubled for drawings starting with Tuesday's, but lottery officials are betting that the swollen jackpots they're expecting will catch the public's attention and lead to an accompanying surge in sales “People really want big jackpots,” said Joshua Johnston, the Washington state lottery director who heads the Mega Millions game. “We expect to see a sales lift on this.” How is Mega Millions changing? The biggest change is the ticket price hike from $2 to $5. Lottery officials expect that jump to increase revenue from the twice-weekly game, enabling them to improve the odds of winning the jackpot from 1 in 303 million to 1 in 290 million. The higher ticket price also means the jackpot can start at $50 million, rather than the previous $20 million, and that the grand prize is expected to grow more quickly. Each time there isn’t a big winner, the jackpot will jump by a larger amount. Officials expect it will more frequently top the $1 billion threshold that draws extra attention — and bigger sales. Under the new rules, prizes for tickets not matching all six numbers also will increase, with non-jackpot winners now guaranteed at least $10. Each ticket also will include a randomly assigned multiplier that can increase the prize by up to 10 times, a previous add-on feature that cost an extra $1. The multiplier doesn't apply to a jackpot. Why is the game changing? The new rules have two main goals: to address what the industry calls “jackpot fatigue" and to differentiate Mega Millions from Powerball, the other lottery draw game played across the country. Jackpot fatigue is the phenomenon under which prizes must grow to enormous amounts before most players will take note and buy a few tickets. These days, a $300 million prize that once drew lines at mini-marts barely registers. With the new rules, officials expect those average winning jackpots to climb from about $450 million to $800 million, Johnston said. And they believe that even lottery fatigue is no match for the more frequent billion-dollar prize.