New "For Life" game has been in the works for years, state lotteries confirm participation
By Kate Northrop
There's a new multi-state game called Millionaire for Life that is set to make its debut in some states in early 2026.
The Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL) is moving forward with a brand-new multi-state game called Millionaire for Life, which is intended to replace Cash4Life and Lucky for Life in several states.
At the La Fleur's Lottery World Conference in Austin, Texas that took place in November 2024, Lottery Post got the chance to sit in on exclusive panels featuring insights from several state lotteries and lottery directors on a myriad of topics. One of those revelations was that there was official work being done to merge the Lucky for Life and Cash4Life products into one desirable multi-state game.
It's something that has been in the works for years, an endeavor that participating state lotteries want to make sure they get right.
It's in state lotteries' interests to "try to make sure that we measure twice and cut once on this huge, huge decision," Colorado Lottery Director Tom Seaver said during a panel at La Fleur's. "I think this merge has the opportunity to go from being a really niche game to being a really prominent part of most [lotteries'] portfolios."
When asked whether there will be a merger for the two "For Life" games, the director hinted at the prospect, adding "I hope so."
"I think the responsibility is on us to create a game that's desirable enough that everybody — not just the people who are playing the existing games — will want to play it and add it to their portfolio," Seaver responded.
In September 2020, MUSL filed an application for the Millionaire for Life trademark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Another application was filed in January 2024, and then again in July 2025 for a possible game logo. The applications have not yet been approved by USPTO, although the Montana Lottery revealed in a commission meeting on Sept. 11 that their state will begin offering the game in 2026.
During this meeting, Montana Lottery officials discussed an overview of the game's expected prize chart and odds but also expressed concerns over the new game's anticipated $5 price point.
Millionaire for Life will add ten more numbers to the matrix than what is currently offered in Lucky for Life. Players will select five numbers between 1 and 58 numbers and one number between 1 and 5. Matching all six numbers will win the game's top prize of $1 million a year for life, while matching just the first five numbers will award a second-tier prize of $100,000 a year for life. The odds of winning the top prize are 1 in 22,910,580.
Winners of either of these prize tiers will have the option of claiming their prize as an annuity or cash option.
However, Montana Lottery Sales and Marketing Director Anne Charpentier pointed out some concerns over the game's $5 price point after drawing attention to Mega Millions sales data since the multi-state game's ticket price increased from $2 to $5.
Montana Lottery officials compared ticket sales 157 days before and after the game change and found that, prior to the price hike, the game sold a total of 1,543,740 tickets in the state. In the 157 days following the ticket cost increase, the game only sold 600,850 tickets in Montana, a 61% change. The difference translated to a staggering 23% loss in average daily revenue, from about $25 million down to $19 million.
Mega Millions jackpots have also been growing much slower as a result of slowed national sales levels, with the average jackpot growth per day down 45% from about $8 million to $4.4 million.
"We have concerns about the performance of the Millionaire for Life game, which also includes a price point change to $5 per play," Charpentier said. "But we also have an opportunity to build the game portfolio, at that $2 and $3 level, and kind of see where we can put other products where the Mega Millions product was prior that would help us in achieving more profit for the state."
Despite the performance from Mega Millions after the biggest multi-state game change in years, it was confirmed at the La Fleur's Lottery World conference in Phoenix on Tuesday that the Millionaire for Life game group voted on the $5 price point. The reason, Oklahoma Lottery Executive Director Jay Finks said, is that it was a strategic decision to have another possible game fill the current gap for a $2 or $3 price point ticket sometime in the near future and allow the national game portfolio room to expand.
"Having different price points and value propositions is how we're going to grow," Finks explained when asked how lotteries can respond to a 5% overall national decline in sales. "...We need to continue to look at that national portfolio and say, 'What's next?' ... Millionaire for Life flirted with $3 and ultimately voted for the $5 [price point]. There's probably an opportunity to have a $3 national game... How do we diversify that?"
For now, state lotteries will be poised to apply what they know about the Mega Millions game now to the Millionaire for Life launch this coming February.
"With regard to what we know how Mega Millions is performing, and that move from a $2 to a $5 price point, we are going to be taking a really close look at how we message that, how that is provided to the player and the sales agents," Charpentier concluded. "We have a unique situation with Millionaire for Life because there's no jackpot. So, there is a set top prize, and that's it. We have to be aware of that as we talk about this and how we show value in that $5 price point."
MUSL declined to confirm which states are confirmed for participation in Millionaire for Life. The Colorado Lottery is confirmed to offer the new game as outlined in their Fall 2025 rule changes, which states that they will repeal the Lucky for Life game on Feb. 21, 2026 and authorize the sale of Millionaire for Life. The game is expected to begin on Feb. 22, 2026, and a "large majority" of states that offer either Cash4Life and Lucky for Life has said they are going to take on Millionaire for Life, Charpentier told Lottery Post.
The last drawing for Lucky for Life will take place on Feb. 21, 2026, with the draw down for Lucky for Life, or the elimination of available multi-draws, will begin on Jan. 24, 2026.
Millionaire for Life drawings are expected to take place after 10:00 p.m. Central Time, with game play sales closing for each draw no later than 9:00 p.m. Central Time, according to a memo from MUSL. The winning numbers will be drawn using Digital Draw Systems. Players will be able to select their own numbers using play slips or can opt for a Quick Pick to allow the computer system to randomly generate numbers for them.
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Been racking my brain about what to do with the rest of my paycheck.
Thanks MUSL!
You would think that after seeing the huge drop off in sales for Mega Millions they would rethink their 5.00 a ticket plan for a paltry prize of a million dollars a year. No one is going to want that. Most players are older than 45 so all they can win is 30 million or so for 5.00 a line. No thanks. No one likes Lucky for Life or Cash for Life now as it is because of the paltry prize structure. With ten more numbers in the matrix forget it. It will not sell. Throw a wet and moldy blanket on this proposed game.
With odds of 22 million to 1 people will actually win this game.
This, so far, appears to be a way better deal for 5 bucks than the idiotic new Mega Millions.
5 bucks for a game that people actually win should get sales going but let's just see how many draws per week they do. If it's 7 then that might be where they run into a problem on this one. Two or three draws per week might be better so players don't feel like they are getting milked.
I'm looking forward to the details because I might just do Power Ball and this new game with rare plays on others.
We will see
Edit - this will be a great "go to" game for when all the other jackpot games are low. This game also beats all the scratchies in my state plus it beats the club Keno and Web games
If the details are good I can see this one easily succeeding when people realize how it compares to what else is out there and they see players actually winning more frequently
I have been studying the game and working on a play list for Lucky For Life for the last couple of weeks. It now seems like my labor will be for nothing.
It looks like this new game will have about 2 1/2 times worse odds for a 5 number hit *and* will have a 2 1/2 times higher ticket cost. Do the lottery people actually think nobody will notice?
May the Deity of the players choice have mercy on those who fall for this because the lottery people will not.
*** SMOOCH ***
I have just kissed this one goodbye before it even begins.
""With regard to what we know how Mega Millions is performing, and that move from a $2 to a $5 price point, we are going to be taking a really close look at how we message that, how that is provided to the player and the sales agents," Charpentier concluded."
Lipstick on a pig, Anne. We players aren't fooled one bit by blatant lies and deceptive practices of the MUSL.
It is so simple.....Go back to the $1 game where the odds were roughly 1/305M for the jackpot.
Stop trying to reinvent the wheel with false messages/jazz hands waiving/bigger-faster slogans.
22.9 million to one odds of winning a million dollars a year for life. No one plays PB or MM when the jackpot is 40 million. Why would anyone play this joke of a game for 5.00 a line. A great "go to" game when all the other jackpot games are low. I'd play a cash 5 game way before this lemon.
I think the MUSL is in full denial of slumping MM sales
Updated the story to include additional info about draw times and the draw method (at the end).
I don't know why Mega Millions just can't go back to the $2 ticket price, there's no shame in admitting that they got it wrong. I mean no billion dollar jackpots, slower rise in jackpot amounts. Last year I think there were (2) billion dollar jackpots at this point in the year.
How many times a week is what most want to know. The actual time is about as insignificant as this game itself is.
Did you do a survey or something??
Will Ohio participate?
Headache somewhat gone so reread the article. Totally missed the million dollars/life sentence.
My understanding is the LFL from CT is RNG, while C4L from NJ is still mechanical ball drawings, correct?
With the $5 Mega Millions ticket with fast increasing jackpots (allegedly) and this one fixed @ a million and terrible odds don't foresee this as a feasible lottery.
I've heard a rumor thru the delivine that third prize is a years worth of liverwurst or oliveloaf.
Have a shaggy day!
ShagE3
The price is way too much for the prize. Keep in mind that Lucky for life is $2.00 a line. If they make 1st prize $2.5m/yr/life, and 2nd prize $500,000.00/yr/life, I will definitely play taking taxes into consideration. The way it stands now, it appears that MUSL is trying to fleece the players, so I'm not playing.
The graphic at the bottom of the article says "draws daily" depending on game group approvial
$5 draw and daily? Even Mega Millions isn't that dumb and/or greedy.
A million dollars a year is paltry?
Not if you are 3 years old when you win it. If you think it is better than Mega Millions or Power Ball then play it when it comes out. I cannot perceive of lottery players playing this 5.00 game daily. Some will, undoubtedly.
I dug deeper and found out it was daily. Should be monthly.
digital draw systems? man, bring back actual ball drawings.
I'm about 100% positive that years ago both of these original lotteries were drawn two times/week. Then greed took over and went to seven days/week.
Blind greed... I have had it with bait and switch. I stopped playing PA cash 5 when they doubled the ticket price and continued with the insulting lower tier prizes. There is no reason to replace Cash 4 Life (the variant in PA). If they want a new game, then make a new game... don't ruin one with changes nobody asked for.
Hmmm c4 life + l4 life = m4 life.
Why $5 a ticket and 7 days a week tho'
I usually play l4 life when powerball is under 250 and megamillion is under 500 mil. And even at that I'd never play l4 life more than twice a week (like it originally started off as).
Alright, for this new game if it were priced at no more than $3.00 I'd try it out because of the bigger grand and 2nd prizes.
If it is final that it be five dollars ..... I might play it for Christmas or my birthday in place of a scratch ticket
Thems my thoughts for now.
Have a shaggy day!
ShagE
They started out once a week Thursday's were open. I never played them. They are not for older players who only have 10-15 years of life left. 5.00 a line every night x 365 is 1825.00 a year to cover this game. In their display ad above they actually call it a game feature that adding ten numbers in the matrix is a positive for players.
Some members posting about this are only thinking about what's best for the players. Those who run the lotteries think what's best for the lotteries. It's a business not a gift shop.
Thanks for the great clarification on priorities and choices among the players and the lotteries. It is so true.
That is exactly why the players have to do what is best for the players and not what is best for the lotteries.
Mmh, some very interesting developments indeed.
I wonder what the cash options would be.
Currently for LFL, it's $5,750,0000 for the jackpot and $390,000 for the second prize.
It's also interesting that one wins nothing for just matching the Lucky ball. Currently you get $4 for that.
I will cross the bridge when we get there.
I'm finding it increasingly difficult to scrape together $5.00 to play Mega Millions more so than $2.00 to play PowerBall.... It's apparent to me at $20 - $25 Million a roll for the current MM jackpot run some if not most of y'all are having the same difficulty. These lower odds/prizes games should be capped at maybe $3.00.
A coerced monopoly is not a business, emphasis on coerced.
All lotto numbers rackets are forced to run through a State, by edict of the State.
* That may well be when it comes to the price of the ticket, but the lottery sees $5.00 scratchers being purchased out there already & figure the price is not going to scare players off, perhaps that's what they think.
Lucky For Life always looked janky to me for its joke of a second prize and needed an overhaul. Cash for Life is the best game going- if it's your lucky day and you pick the first 5 balls correctly, for $8 you can run the table with all four cash balls. For $20 you can clean out the maximum prize pool (read the official rules) which is $14,000,000/draw. And they're adding another cash ball and raising the price to $5???. So much for running the table. And goodbye, Millionaire for Life...stick your $5 price point and random (lol!) number generator up your exit ramp.
Well soon enough every single lottery game will be ridiculously expensive to the point that it's an expensive donation to play just for fun. The people in charge seem to be so out of touch with reality lol!
The initial knee-jerk reactions are predictable.
When people are actually in the store buying tickets and comparing this to other games they will realize that this is a decent game. There are some states where that may not be true but from Michigan I can tell you it looks good compared to everything else we have.
I don't like waiting years and years for the 6/xx jackpot to get big and the Fantasy 5 here has never been over a Million since it started 20 or 21 years ago. Also in the years we have had Fast cash there have only been two jackpots over 2 million.
I won't go into how it compares to other games here but it looks really good compared to the other games here.
In the five decades I have been playing the lottery games they have just been getting worse and worse with higher odds and higher ticket prices.
This game has decent odds for what it is and to pay $5 to go for a million dollars a year at any time without having to wait for jackpots to build on other games is a good selling point as far as I have seen over the years.
You can also spend $25 for a "full" ticket and make the actual odds go to 4,582,116 (Note that is actual odds and NOT chances) to one because this is a two "drum" game so you can buy all 5 money balls to get the full ticket instead of just a fifth of a ticket.
Compare that to the states that have $50 scratchies with the odds that are just about the same or harder than this game and it is starting to look like a deal compared to those and most of those only pay out a Million a year for 20 years.
Speaking of scratchies you have to be in the store that has the ticket with the big prize to win it.
With this Millions for life game the winning ticket could be sold at anytime at any terminal meaning you don't have to be in a big metro area to actually be able to win the top prize.
My only qualm would be if there are seven draws a week. 3 draws would be good with 4 tops...but no more than that.
I predict that this game is a sleeper and will catch on when people realize what it is but that is not a prediction for every state cause I haven't looked at how this compares in other states but I'm betting it will be really favorable in most other states too.
Oh well, I have answered my own question on why you win nothing for matching the Lucky Ball.
There are only 5 numbers, so for $25 you can buy all the Lucky Balls and guarantee a win.
What are your thoughts if two people win the jackpot - do you think that at 500K a year it's still worth it?
I definitely like the 1M a year prize at the given odds.
LFL currently has a 20 year guaranteed payment if you opt for the annuity.
This musl M4L stuff got me to think . .
Maybe musl will do away with Lotto America .... kinda consolidate everything into one game?
Have a shaggy day
ShagE3
To add to this train of thought ....
Maybe the time has come for PB and MM to merge into one?
This is a non starter. 1st Problem: Computer simulation with no ball drop. 2nd Problem: Top prize isn't nearly enough for a $ 5 line. 3rd problem: Daily Draws - 2-3 times a week is max. Summary...MUSL apparently doesn't believe their own numbers after looking at the revenue loss on Mega Millions. IF they made the Cash Ball a multiplier of the jackpot that would spice it up tremendously (They would still have "1" as an out). Remember the Tennessee Cash 3 Double numbers problem (where doubles were coming up too frequently) on a computer generated draw? To me, it's just too easy to rig. Random thought: I don't play scratch and sniff and it would be interesting to see how many players as a percentage of draw games don't. $5 a line? As they say on shark tank: "For that reason, I'm out".
If you win nothing for matching just the lucky ball how does spending $25 to cover all five lucky balls guarantee a win!
according to a memo from MUSL. The winning numbers will be drawn using Digital Draw.Computer draw game.NO THANKS! I don't do computer games.......
I don't know all the details hence the
"I'm looking forward to the details because I might just do Power Ball and this new game with rare plays on others.
We will see" line in my original post on this thread.
The 500k is ok because, using past inflation figures, that would be 100k in 30 years if I am around then.
That is another reason I don't like Mega Millions because who wants the annuity payments adjusted for inflation if you are over 45 years old? I would rather have a flat annuity because the closer you supposedly are to going why would you want all the money the year you die?
Good luck to them I stopped buying Mega Millions tickets since price increase to $5
Guess another game to drop on the horizon
It does not, that is why you win nothing.
If you won something then buying all five Lucky Balls would guarantee a win.
Hahaha, I know that sentence is confusing but it is true, just read it slowly 🙏
$1 million sounds great. but after taxes, you'd get about 1/5th of the amount. it's a gimmick.