Lottery games with "lifetime" prizes, known by names such as '' Cash4Life,

Lucky for Life Lucky for Life (LFL) is a Lottery, lottery drawing game, which, as of June 28, 2021, is available in 22 states and the D.C. Lottery, District of Columbia. Lucky for Life, which began in 2009 in Connecticut as ''Lucky-4-Life'', became a New Englan ...

,'' and ''Win for Life,'' comprise two types of United States

lottery A lottery (or lotto) is a form of gambling that involves the drawing of numbers at random for a prize. Some governments outlaw lotteries, while others endorse it to the extent of organizing a national or state lottery. It is common to find som ...

games in which the top prize is advertised as a lifetime

annuity In investment, an annuity is a series of payments made at equal intervals based on a contract with a lump sum of money. Insurance companies are common annuity providers and are used by clients for things like retirement or death benefits. Examples ...

; unlike annuities with a fixed period (such as 25 years), lifetime annuities often pay (sometimes for decades) until the winner's death.

Scratch games

Most U.S. lotteries offer at least one

scratch game Scratch or scratching may refer to: Science and technology * Scratch (programming language), an educational programming language developed by the MIT Media Lab * Scratch space, space on the hard disk drive that is dedicated for only temporary ...

with lifetime prizes. These games vary; some lotteries offer multiple price points for "lifetime" games, with the top prize ranging from $50 daily to $1,000,000 yearly. Play for each game varies. Increasingly, American lotteries have introduced a cash option for winners of scratch games with such prizes (as they had begun in the 20th century with fixed annuities in almost all games, drawing or scratchcard.)

Draw games

The "Win for Life" game (which replaced "

Lotto South Lotto South was a three-state lottery game in Georgia, Kentucky, and Virginia, which ran from 2001 to 2006. It resulted from the September 2001 merger of three smaller jackpot games, one from each of the three lotteries. This was done in an att ...

") began in 2006 in

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

Kentucky Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...

, and

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

. Kentucky dropped out in 2011, and Georgia in 2014, leaving Virginia as its only member. "Win for Life" was retired following the September 13, 2014 drawing; it was replaced by ''$1,000,000 Moneyball'', a Virginia-only game since replaced by ''Bank a Million''. In ''Win for Life'', players chose six numbers from 1 through 42; seven numbers were drawn, including the "Free Ball". Top prize was $1000-per-week; there was a cash option of $1 million (offered when WFL became a Virginia-only game; when WFL began Virginia offered a $520,000 cash option, but the choice was eliminated the following year as neither Georgia nor Kentucky offered winners a cash option.) Second prize was $52,000 cash. When Kentucky dropped WFL, Georgia, Kentucky, and Virginia began "

Decades of Dollars Decades of Dollars (DoD) was an American lottery game that began as a multi-state game in January 2011, though by its end, only the Virginia Lottery offered it. Georgia and Kentucky joined Virginia in launching DoD; Arkansas joined in May 2011. (DoD ...

", which later added

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the West South Central region of the Southern United States. It borders Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, Texas to the southwest, and Oklahoma ...

. On October 19, 2014, Decades of Dollars no longer was available in Arkansas, Georgia, or Kentucky; the three lotteries participated in the launch of "

Monopoly Millionaires' Club Monopoly Millionaires' Club (MMC) was a series of 16 scratchcard games that differed by its participating lotteries; its players could become eligible to be flown to Las Vegas to take part in an episode of the ''Monopoly Millionaires' Club'' gam ...

", whose sales were suspended in December. Decades of Dollars held its final drawing on April 30, 2015; Virginia then joined the multi-state " Cash4Life". In 2015, Kentucky joined Lucky for Life (which began in 2009 as a Connecticut-only game, "Lucky-4-Life") and Virginia joined the rival "Cash4Life". On August 28, 2016, Georgia joined Cash4Life; both games mentioned here have ''two'' lifetime prize tiers; winners of a "lifetime" prize can choose cash in lieu of annuity payments. As of 2021, Cash4Life has 10 members while Lucky for Life has 25; Missouri has offered both games, although not simultaneously. Missouri ended sales of Lucky for Life on April 8, joining Cash4Life three days later.

References

Lottery games in the United States {{gambling-stub