Millionaire for Life: Here's What You Need to Know About the New $5 Lottery Game

A new national lottery draw game just launched last month, and it's worth knowing about. Millionaire for Life debuted on February 22, 2026 in 31 states, replacing Lucky for Life and Cash4Life in every participating jurisdiction. If you've been playing either of those games, they're gone, this is what replaced them. And if you've never heard of either, here's what you need to know about the new game.

What It Is

Millionaire for Life is a daily draw game run by the Multi-State Lottery Association, the same organization behind Powerball. It costs $5 per play. You pick five numbers from 1 to 58, then one Millionaire Ball number from 1 to 5. Drawings happen every night.

The top prize is $1,000,000 a year for life, the biggest lifetime prize in U.S. lottery history. The second-tier prize is $100,000 a year for life. Both prizes have a 20-year guaranteed minimum payout, meaning if you win and pass away early, the remaining payments go to your estate. Winners can also take a lump sum cash option instead: $18,000,000 for the top prize, $2,200,000 for second prize.

There are nine prize tiers total, with smaller cash prizes ranging from $8 up to $7,500 for the lower levels.

Where It's Available

Millionaire for Life is currently available in 31 jurisdictions: Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Washington D.C., 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, Virginia, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

Notable absences: Florida, Texas, and California are not participating. If you're in one of those states, the game isn't available to you.

How It Compares to What It Replaced

Lucky for Life paid $1,000 a day for life (about $365,000 a year) at $2 per ticket. Cash4Life paid $1,000 a day for life at $2 per ticket as well. Millionaire for Life pays $1,000,000 a year, roughly three times more, but costs $5 per ticket instead of $2.

The prize is bigger. The cost is also more than double. That's the tradeoff players are reacting to, and based on comment sections across state lottery websites since launch, opinion is split. Casual daily players who liked the $2 buy-in are frustrated. Players who were chasing a significant life change see the upgraded prize as worth it.

The odds of winning the top prize are 1 in 22,910,580. Overall odds of winning any prize are 1 in 8.47. For context, Powerball's overall odds are 1 in 24.9 and Mega Millions comes in at 1 in 23. Millionaire for Life has slightly better overall odds than both at the same $5 price point.