Millionaire For Life

Millionaire for Life is a multi-state lottery drawing game best known for its two headline jackpot prizes:

• $1,000,000 a year for life
• $100,000 a year for life

Read on for BettingUSA’s full Millionaire for Life rundown. We explain how it works, where to buy Millionaire for Life tickets online, the odds of winning, how it compares to other lottery games, and more.

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Although Millionaire for Life jackpots pale compared to Powerball and Mega Millions, players have significantly better odds of winning the top prize.

The way Millionaire for Life advertises its jackpot prizes is compelling (who wouldn’t love to have an extra million dollars a year for life?), but it is fundamentally no different than other prominent multi-state lottery games.

Quick Millionaire for Life Guide

• Ticket Price: $5.00
• Top Prize: $1,000,000 per year for life
• Jackpot Odds: 1 in 22,910,580
• Any-Prize Odds: 1in 8.46
• Millionaire for Life Drawings: Every evening at 11:15 PM ET
• Ticket Purchase Deadline: Varies but no later than 10:15 PM ET

Where to Buy Millionaire for Life Online

In many states, players can buy Millionaire for Life tickets online directly through the state’s official lottery website or mobile app.

Alternatively, players in a growing number of states can play Millionaire for Life online through the Jackpocket app, theLotter, and Jackpocket.com.

Visit our lottery hub to see which states have online lotteries or legal third-party apps like Jackpocket.

Millionaire for Life States

Players in 30 states plus DC can buy Millionaire for Life tickets:

• Arkansas
• Colorado
• Connecticut
• District of Columbia
• Georgia
• Idaho
• Indiana
• Iowa
• Kansas
• Kentucky
• Maine
• Massachusetts
• Michigan
• Mississippi
• Montana
• Nebraska
• New Hampshire
• New Jersey
• New York
• North Carolina
• North Dakota
• Ohio
• Oklahoma
• Pennsylvania
• Rhode Island
• South Dakota
• Tennessee
• Vermont
• Virginia
• West Virginia
• Wyoming

How to Play Millionaire for Life

First, decide whether to play Millionaire for Life online (select states only) or in person.

• Online: Open your favorite lottery app or visit your state lottery’s website to log in and select Millionaire for Life from the game menu.
• In-Person: Visit your nearest lottery retailer and request a Millionaire for Life payslip.

Next, select six numbers as follows:

• Five numbers between 1 and 58
• A Millionaire Ball number between 1 and 5

Alternatively, you can request a Quick Pick ticket to let the computer choose random numbers on your behalf.

Return the completed payslip to the cashier or hit “submit” if playing online.

Watch the live drawing at 11:15 PM ET or check the results later at your state lottery’s official website to see if you’ve won. Legal Millionaire for Life apps like Jackpocket also notify customers if they win.

The best outcome is to match your numbers with all numbers drawn for the five white balls and the Millionaire Ball. Doing so wins the top prize: $1,000,000 a year for life, or the cash option. If you match all five white balls and miss the Cash Ball, you’ll win the second-largest prize, $100,000 a year for life, which also has a cash-out option.

Millionaire for Life Jackpots and Prizes

Cash4Life has nine prize levels, including two jackpot-sized “for life” prizes.

# of Matches	Prize
5 + Millionaire Ball	$1 Million per year for life (or $18 million cash option)
5	$100,000 per year for life (or $2.2 million cash option)
4 + Millionaire Ball	$7,500
4	$500
3 + Millionaire Ball	$250
3	$50
2 + Millionaire Ball	$25
2	$8
1 + Millionaire Ball	$8

$1,000,000 Per Year for Life

If the numbers on your ticket match the numbers drawn for all five white numbers plus the Millionaire Ball, you win the jackpot and can choose between:

• An annuity that pays $1,000,000 per year for life
• An immediate cash payout of $18 million

The Millionaire for Life jackpot is truly “for the rest of your life,” no matter how long that may be. Additionally, it guarantees at least 20 years of payments. If the 20-year guarantee outlives you, the payments will continue to your estate until a total of 20 annual payments have been made.

If there are multiple winners, the lottery will divide the prize pool as follows:

• 2-20 Winners: Every winner splits the prize evenly and may still choose between the annuity or cash option. In this case, the minimum annuity option will be $50,000 per year for life (20 winners splitting $1 million per year = $50,000 per year).
• 21+ Winners: Everyone splits the prize evenly, but there will be no annuity option.

$100,000 Per Year for Life

Players who match all five white balls but not the Millionaire Ball win the secondary prize of $100,000 per year for life.

Just like the top prize, the $100,000/year annuity lasts for the rest of your life and guarantees payments for a minimum of 20 years. Winners may also opt for an immediate lump sum payout of $2,200,000.

Here’s what happens if there are multiple winners:

• 2-20 Winners: Every winner receives the full prize amount and may choose between $100,000 per year for life or take the $2.2 million cash option. In other words, you will NOT have to split the prize in this case.
• 21+ Winners: Each state lottery has a maximum prize liability cap that covers this scenario. In this case, all winners receive an equal share of the prize fund as an immediate cash payout, and there is no annuity option.

Millionaire for Life Odds

Although Millionaire for Life has smaller jackpots than the other prominent multi-state lottery games, players have much better odds of winning.

The probability of winning the Millionaire for Life jackpot is just under 1 in 23 million, and the odds of winning any prize are just under 1 in 9.

That’s about 12.5 times greater than winning the Powerball (1 in 292 million) or Mega Millions (1 in 290 million) jackpots. Meanwhile, the odds of winning any prize in Millionaire for Life are about 3 times greater than in Powerball (1 in 25) or Mega Millions (1 in 24).

Prize	Odds of Winning
$1 Million a year for life	1 in 22,910,580
$100,000 a year for life	1 in 5,727,645
$7,500	1 in 86,455.02
$500	1 in 21,613.75
$250	1 in 1,662.60
$50	1 in 415.65
$25	1 in 97
$8	1 in 24.45
$8	1 in 15.65

Millionaire for Life Strategy

Don’t believe anyone who tells you they have a lottery system that will tell you how to win Millionaire for Life.

For starters, why would they be giving this top-secret lottery information for free?

Another problem: why aren’t they rich beyond all measure, unimaginably wealthy from consistently beating the state lottery?

Every Money for Life drawing is an independent random event, meaning every number is equally likely to be drawn no matter what happened before. Whether a particular number has been drawn five days running or has been missing in action for a week has zero impact on the odds that number will be selected in the next drawing.

Could Millionaire for Life be a rare exception? Sure. Players have discovered mathematical edges in certain lottery games in the past. But if there’s an edge in Millionaire for Life (extremely unlikely), that brings us back to the first point: they’re not going to share that information with the public.

In short, 99% of the Millionaire for Life strategy posted online is garbage. At best, it’s useless. At worst, it’s harmful because it creates unrealistic expectations and encourages players to forgo responsible gambling.

Given the above caveats, here’s the best way to play Millionaire for Life as strategically as possible:

It begins by controlling your spending. Even at $5 a ticket, it’s easy to drain your bankroll or spend more money than you want.

The easiest way to manage your spending and approach Millionaire for Life strategically is to determine how much you want to spend on the game each month or year. That tells you how many tickets you can afford each week.

For example:

Suppose you want to Millionaire for Life as often as possible but don’t want to lose more than $500 a year. At $5 a ticket, you could comfortably play 100 times a year. Even if every single ticket was a loser (unlikely), you stuck to your budget, didn’t spend more than you could comfortably afford, and still got to play roughly twice a week.

Other intelligent (and actually useful) Millionaire for Life strategies include checking your tickets immediately after each drawing, signing the back of every ticket, and keeping the news to yourself if you win a significant amount.

Millionaire for Life vs. Cash4Life and Lucky for Life

The Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL) launched Millionaire for Life in February 2026, coinciding with the retirement of two similar games: Cash4Life and Lucky for Life.

Although state lotteries do not overtly market Millionaire for Life as the official replacement of Cash4Life or Lucky for Life, that’s essentially what it is. Millionaire for Life operates on a similar premise but with bigger top prizes and wider availability.

Here’s how they differ:

	Millionaire for Life	Cash4Life	Lucky for Life
Cost per Ticket	$5	$2	$2
Top Prize	$1 million/year for life	$1,000/day for life	$1,000/day for life
Top Prize Odds	1 in 22.9 million	1 in 21.8 million	1 in 30.8 million
Second Prize	$100K/year for life	$1,000/week for life	$25,000/year for life
Second Prize Odds	1 in 5.7 million	1 in 7.3 million	1 in 1.8 million
Any Prize Odds	1 in 8.46	1 in 7.76	1 in 7.8

In short, Millionaire for Life costs more than twice as much as Cash4Life and Lucky for Life, but it offers significantly better prizes at comparable odds.

Millionaire for Life FAQ