Decades of Dollars to replace Win For Life game
By Todd Northrop
UPDATED: Since the original news story was written, it has come to our attention that Arkansas will not be participating in the new lottery game, due to legislative hurdles, and the Win For Life game will continue to be played in Virginia. The title of the story has been changed to reflect three state lotteries, rather than the four state lotteries originally referenced, and the body of the article has been updated with the above two new facts.
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The states of Georgia and Kentucky will be ending sales of the multi-state Win For Life game, and the three states of Georgia, Kentucky, and Virginia will be adding a new multi-state game called Decades of Dollars.
The state of Virginia will continue offering Win For Life as an in-state game. Virginia marketing materials indicate a desire to cross-sell Win For Life in other states.
The last drawing of Win For Life in Georgia and Kentucky will be Jan. 29, and the new game will go on sale the following day. The first drawing of Decades of Dollars will be on Thurs., Feb. 3, 2011.
Decades of Dollars drawings will be held on Mondays and Thursdays.
On each $2 ticket, players choose 6 numbers between 1 and 47, or they can have the lottery terminal randomly generate the numbers.
Matching all 6 numbers wins the top prize of $250,000 per year for 30 years or $4 million in cash. If more than two tickets win the top prize in one drawing, all the winning tickets will equally share a $10 million prize.
Prizes and odds
Players can win a prize by matching as few as two numbers. The complete list of prizes are listed below, along with the odds of winning.
- Match 6 of 6 — $250,000 per year for 30 years or $4 million in cash (odds are 1 in 10,737,573)
- Match 5 of 6 — $10,000, fixed prize for up to 25 winners; if greater than 25 winners, the second prize pool of $250,000 is shared among all winning tickets (odds are 1 in 43,649)
- Match 4 of 6 — $100 (odds are 1 in 873)
- Match 3 of 6 — $10 (odds are 1 in 50)
- Match 2 of 6 — Free Ticket (odds are 1 in 7.1)
The overall odds of winning a prize are 1 in 6.2.
Thanks to Increase for the tip.
man i wish north carlina had this game!!!!!!!!!!!
I think these regional multi-state games are a great idea. I'm surprised more of them don't hop on board. Hopefully they will.
I really like that payout of $10 for a 3 of 6 match. Ohio Classic Lotto (6/49) pays $2 for a 3 of 6 match, a $10 prize would make CL more interesting when its jackpot resets to $1M.
I wish Oklahoma had this..... heck I wish Oklahoma just had a State lottery... well it looks like I wil be visiting my cousins in Arkansas
"Matching all 6 numbers wins the top prize of $250,000 per year for 30 years or $4 million in cash. If more than two tickets win the top prize in one drawing, all the winning tickets will equally share a $10 million prize."
$250K x 30 = $7,500,000 This is pretty good except that you're responsible for annual taxes.
If there's 2+ winners, they share $10mil. So that means, they couldd end up with less than the original $4mil .
It's 3+ winners that would share $10M. (The article states "more than two", which is the same as saying "3 or more", or 3+)
It would be rare to see more than 2 winners in one drawing, I would think. It's a contingency to keep the game solvent.
Glad it's coming to Arkansas. I may have to play this everyone once in a while.
Good luck I hope it's a great success !
Todd, what's Decades for Dollars that replace Win for Life?
I hope idaho jumps on this one.
Great, maybe i can win something here in virginia from this game before it turns into another Big game!!!!
I may be in the minority here, but I will miss Win For Life.
I played it in Virginia back when I lived there, and it reminded me of the old Tri-State Megabucks in that it had the exact same 6+1 of 42 matrix. I also don't care for this trend of replacing $1 games with $2 games (which also happened to Tri-State Megabucks).
On the other hand, I do like a few things about Decades of Dollars. I like the Match 2 prize, even if it's a free ticket. I like the fact that it remains a simple game; in fact, it's even simpler than Win For Life. On a side note, I wonder if the free ticket will be an automatically generated computer pick à la New York's Take Five or if it's just another way of saying "you won two bucks."
I was going to say that the lower-tier payouts are very good considering the nature of the game, but then I saw that tickets cost $2. Still, the lower-tier payouts look much better than those of Powerball and Mega Millions.