A quick pick sold in Maple Heights won $1 million a year for life, Ohio's second Millionaire for Life jackpot

An Ohio Lottery player has won the Millionaire for Life jackpot, worth $1,000,000 a year for life or $18 million cash option. According to the Ohio Lottery, the auto-pick/quick-pick ticket matched all five numbers plus the Millionaire Ball in the September 8 drawing and was sold at Libby Sunoco at 5270 Warrensville Center Road in Maple Heights.

The winning numbers were 14-19-36-41-42 and the Millionaire Ball was 2. The Ohio Lottery said this is the second Millionaire for Life jackpot ticket sold in Ohio since the game launched in February. The first, won with a manual pick, was sold at a Giant Eagle at 15325 Edgecliff Avenue in Cleveland for the April 27 drawing.

Three jackpots for Millionaire For Life in 199 nights

Millionaire for Life draws nightly and has been running since February 22, 2026. In its first 199 drawings the jackpot has been hit three times, on April 27, May 21, and now September 8. That works out to about one jackpot per 66 nights, or about once every nine weeks.

A jackpot line is 1 in 22,910,580, about 13 times shorter than Powerball at 1 in 292,201,338 and 13 times shorter than Mega Millions. Overall odds of winning any prize are 1 in 8.46, longer than most draw games because the prize table runs deep instead of wide. The game is sold in 31 states at $5 a play. The game replaced Cash4Life and Lucky for Life.

Tuesday's drawing produced one jackpot winner and no Match 5 tickets in the tier below it, where the prize is $100,000 a year for life or $2,200,000 cash option.

Winner's options: $1,000,000 a year for the rest of your life or $18 million now

The advertised prize is an annual payment of $1 million for the rest of your life. A winner who wants a bigger amount immediately can take the cash option of $18 million. Ohio withholds 24% for federal tax and 2.75% for state tax on either option.

The $18 million sits in the top 37% federal bracket, so the federal tax under 2026 rates is about $6.6 million, roughly $2.3 million more than was held back. After accounting for all taxes, the cash option comes to about $10.9 million.

Taking the yearly payments instead means about $645,000 a year after federal and Ohio tax for the rest of your life. There's a 20 year minimum in case the winner passes away early and the money will go to the winner's estate. However, if the winner is alive 60 years from now, they will still be receiving the $1 million every year. 

Millionaire for Life debuted February 22, 2026 across 31 states, replacing Lucky for Life and Cash4Life and raising the ticket from $2 to $5. How the game works is covered in our guide to playing it, and how it compares to Powerball and Mega Millions comes down to trading a smaller top prize for far shorter odds.

Sources

Ohio Lottery: Millionaire for Life jackpot winning ticket Sold in Maple Heights