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Millionaire for Life: How to Play and What 'for Life' Means

Five numbers from 1 to 58, one Millionaire Ball, US$5 a play, a draw every night: Millionaire for Life how to play, plus how the lifetime prizes are paid.

Oct 9, 2026 · 8 min read

Photo for illustrative purposes only.

The ticket side of how to play Millionaire for Life is simple. You choose five numbers from 1 to 58 and one Millionaire Ball from 1 to 5, pay US$5 for the play, and it goes into a draw held every night at 11:15 p.m. ET. The prize takes more explaining. Match all six and the top prize is US$1,000,000 a year for life, or a cash option of up to US$18 million for a single top-prize winner, and both figures change when more than one play wins it in the same draw.

Five white balls, one Millionaire Ball, a draw every night

Millionaire for Life is a multi-state game in the United States. Its official page is on powerball.com, published by the Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL), and tickets are sold by state lotteries, which Pennsylvania's game rules call the Selling Lotteries: "the group of state lotteries participating jointly to offer" the game. Powerball.com lists it on sale in Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia, Vermont, West Virginia and Wyoming.

On the slip itself, how to play Millionaire for Life is two choices: five different numbers from 1 through 58, the white balls, and one Millionaire Ball from another set numbered 1 through 5. You can pick them yourself or, in New Hampshire's wording, "ask for an Easy Pick." Every play costs US$5.

There's a draw every day of the week, Sunday through Saturday, at 11:15 p.m. ET, according to powerball.com. Ticket sales close before that, so check the cutoff where you buy; the Virginia Lottery, for one, stops selling Millionaire for Life tickets at 10:15 p.m. ET every night. Buying ahead also depends on the state. Vermont sells tickets for up to 20 draws, including the current one, and New Hampshire allows up to 21 consecutive drawings. Results for each draw are on the Millionaire for Life results page on lottery.fm.

The game itself is young. In New Hampshire, Lucky For Life's final drawing was on Saturday, February 21, 2026, and Millionaire for Life went on sale on February 22, 2026, according to the state lottery.

Nine prize levels, from US$8 to a million a year

Powerball.com counts nine ways to win. Which one a play lands on depends on how many of its five white-ball numbers were drawn and whether its Millionaire Ball was.

Match Prize Odds for one US$5 play
5 + Millionaire Ball US$1,000,000 a year for life, or a US$18 million cash option 1 in 22,910,580
5 US$100,000 a year for life, or a US$2.2 million cash option 1 in 5,727,645
4 + Millionaire Ball US$7,500 1 in 86,455.02
4 US$500 1 in 21,613.75
3 + Millionaire Ball US$250 1 in 1,662.60
3 US$50 1 in 415.65
2 + Millionaire Ball US$25 1 in 97.80
2 US$8 1 in 24.45
1 + Millionaire Ball US$8 1 in 15.65

Prizes come from the official prize chart on powerball.com. The odds are from lottery.fm's game facts as of October 5, 2026, and they're the same figures the chart gives. The top prize's cash option shown is the single-winner figure.

The number in each row counts white-ball matches. Two white balls on their own pay US$8, and the same two with the Millionaire Ball pay US$25. A single white ball wins nothing without the Millionaire Ball; with it, the play pays US$8, at 1 in 15.65, the shortest odds of the nine. The Millionaire Ball on its own isn't a prize level.

The odds of winning any prize are 1 in 8.46 per play. Every draw is random and independent, so the numbers drawn last night, or drawn most often in the past, say nothing about tonight's. A second play in the same draw is one more US$5 entry; it doesn't change the first play's odds.

A year at a time: how "for life" is paid

Powerball.com says winners of the top two prize levels may take their prize as an annuity, with guaranteed payments for 20 years, or as a one-time cash payment. When many plays share a prize, that choice narrows, as the next section shows. The finer print is in the game rules that state lotteries publish, and Pennsylvania's version, printed in the Pennsylvania Bulletin on February 21, 2026, is one example.

  • One payment a year. Pennsylvania's prize table lists both lifetime prizes as paid annually.

  • Twenty years guaranteed, then for as long as the winner lives. The annuity is split into a Guaranteed Annuity Portion, covering the first 20 years, and a Deferred Annuity Portion paid after that. If the winner dies during the first 20 years, the remaining guaranteed payments are still paid under Pennsylvania's lottery regulations. Payments in the deferred portion stop at the winner's death.

  • The annuity is the default. In Pennsylvania, where an annuity is available, the top two prizes are paid that way unless the winner elects cash in writing within 60 days of the lottery determining they're entitled to the prize. The election is irrevocable.

  • The cash figure is a ceiling. The same rules set US$18 million as the maximum cash option for the top prize and US$2.2 million for the second, and the prize table notes that the cash value is posted on the lottery's website and is subject to change.

One clause matters for groups. Pennsylvania's rules fix the payout period, which they call the Measuring Life, at 20 years when the claim is made by a minor under 18, by an entity, or by more than one person for the same winning play. Under those rules, an office pool that claims one top-prize ticket as a group and takes the annuity receives 20 years of payments, not payments for life.

One winner, twenty, or more: how the top two prizes divide

The rules count top-prize winners across all the selling lotteries together, not state by state, and the total decides the payout. In Pennsylvania's version, "pari-mutuel" means the prize is divided by the number of winning plays, and it works out like this:

Winning plays in the same draw Top prize (5 + Millionaire Ball) Second prize (5)
One US$1,000,000 a year for life, or the cash option US$100,000 a year for life, or the cash option
2 to 20 The annuity value of US$1,000,000 a year is divided on a pari-mutuel basis, with a minimum of US$50,000 a year for life; winners may take cash instead, and the cash option is divided too The annuity value stays at US$100,000 a year for life, or the cash option
21 or more No annuity. The cash option value is divided on a pari-mutuel basis and paid as a lump sum to each winner, and no share is less than the lowest-tier prize paid in that draw No annuity. The cash option is capped at an amount the selling lotteries set, divided on a pari-mutuel basis, and paid as a lump sum to each winner; no share is less than the lowest-tier prize paid in that draw

Every prize level carries one more condition. Before sales open for a draw, the selling lotteries set a liability limit and post it on their websites. If the prizes in a draw would go over it, the amounts at every prize level, the top two included, are adjusted by a formula the selling lotteries set, so the draw's total stays within the limit.

Rules that come with the state that sold your ticket

Millionaire for Life is one game across many states, but a ticket follows the rules of the lottery that sold it.

Age. Vermont's lottery says you must be 18 or older to buy a ticket, and New Hampshire's says you must be 18 or over to play the lottery there. Check the rule with the lottery where you buy.

Claim deadline. Vermont says all prizes must be claimed within one year of the winning draw date, and Pennsylvania's rules also give one year from the date of the draw before the right to claim expires. Those are two states' rules, not a national deadline, so look up your own state's before the ticket goes into a drawer.

Tax. Lottery winnings are taxable in the United States: federal withholding applies, and most states tax winnings as well. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) or a tax professional can say how that applies to a particular prize; this is general information, not tax advice.

If gambling ever stops feeling like entertainment, free and confidential help is available around the clock from the National Problem Gambling Helpline at 1-800-MY-RESET.

Always confirm winning numbers, prize amounts, and deadlines with the official operator before acting on a ticket — the operator's published results are the only ones that count.

Sources

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