When changes were made to the Powerball lottery a couple weeks ago, officials were banking on the fact that the larger prizes would outweigh the increased price in the eyes of ticket buyers.

And so far at least, it looks like they were right.

"While it's still early with the game enhancement that went into effect on January 15, Minnesota has seen very positive sales results since the change has been made," said Jenny Canfield, acting director of the Minnesota State Lottery. "The most recent same day, same jackpot size comparison shows that sales are up over 20 percent."

Before the change, tickets cost $1 each, the prize for matching all five white balls, but not the red ball, was $200,000, and the prize for matching just the red "powerball" was $3. Now tickets are $2, matching the five white balls gets you $1 million and matching just the red ball is good for $4.

The number of red balls in the tumbler was also reduced from 39 to 35, which means your odds of winning the jackpot have "improved" from 1 in 195 million to 1 in 175 million.

Tina Merta, assistant manager at SuperAmerica in Rosemount, said the buying habits of most Powerball "regulars" are unchanged since the switch.

"I know that regular customers have still been buying (as many tickets), the ones who come in every week," Merta said. "The ones who only (buy tickets) once in a while, they complain, and some of them have gone to Gopher 5."

In addition to Gopher 5—a Minnesota exclusive—lottery fans can also still buy tickets for MegaMillions, the other multi-state lottery in which Minnesota participates, for $1.

There was no jackpot winner in Wednesday night's Powerball drawing, meaning Saturday's drawing will be for an estimated $200 million, the largest jackpot since the switch.