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

Cash4Life Cash4Life is an American multi-jurisdictional lottery drawing game; as of April 2021, it is offered by ten state lotteries, and is drawn nightly. Ticket sales began on June 13, 2014, in New York and New Jersey; the first drawing took place thr ...

Lucky for Life Lucky for Life (LFL) is a lottery drawing game, which, as of June 28, 2021, is available in 22 states and the District of Columbia. Lucky for Life, which began in 2009 in Connecticut as ''Lucky-4-Life'', became a New England–wide game three ye ...

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

lottery A lottery 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 some degree of ...

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.Kellison, Stephen G. (1970). ''The Theory of Interest''. Homewood, Illinois: Richard D. Irwin, Inc. p. 45 Examples of annuities are regular deposits to a savings account, mo ...

; unlike annuities with a fixed period (such as 25 years), lifetime annuities often pay (sometimes for

decades A decade () is a period of ten years. Decades may describe any ten-year period, such as those of a person's life, or refer to specific groupings of calendar years. Usage Any period of ten years is a "decade". For example, the statement that "du ...

) 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 MIT Media Lab * Scratch space, space on the hard disk drive that is dedicated for only temporary stora ...

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 In economics, cash is money in the physical form of currency, such as banknotes and coins. In bookkeeping and financial accounting, cash is current assets comprising currency or currency equivalents that can be accessed immediately or near-immed ...

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 lottery game in Georgia, Kentucky, and Virginia. It resulted from the September 2001 merger of three smaller jackpot games, one from each of the three lotteries. This was done in an attempt to create larger jackpots. Drawings t ...

") began in 2006 in

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...

, and

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

. 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 the name of a Virginia-only lottery game; it began as a multi-state game in January 2011. Georgia and Kentucky joined Virginia in launching DoD; Arkansas joined in May 2011. (DoD replaced '' Win for Life'' in Kentucky; W ...

", which later added

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osage ...

. 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, 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 Millionaire ...

", whose sales were suspended in December. Decades of Dollars held its final drawing on April 30, 2015; Virginia then joined the multi-state "

". 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

; 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 is the first lottery to offer ''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