Florida isn't on the list of states that are confirmed to offer it.

I'm in Florida, but that $5 per play horse dung don't thrill me, so it probably won't matter to me whether or not Florida does offer it.

We do have Cash4Life, but I never play it. I waste my money on other games like PowerBall.  G5

Another $5 draw game? These people are crazy

I play Lucky for Life regularly and what I like most is the grand prize payout structure. If you take the “For Life” annuity, it pays out weekly instead of annually.  $7k minus taxes so $4.5k’ish direct deposited every week is a very good paycheck.  I don’t know if every state has the same payout structure but in Colorado’s official rules it states weekly direct deposits starting from the 2nd check (you get the first check the day you claim it).

I know most people would take the $5.7m lump sum (minus taxes its around $3.4m), but I would rather have the paycheck every single week... for the rest of your life.  If you’re not careful you can go through $3m pretty easily over a couple years.  And once that money’s gone, its gone for good.  Versus, if you took the weekly payouts and do something stupid that blows your savings, you still have another paycheck next week… and the week after.

If it was a once-a-year payment, I don’t know what I would do.  Probably not play it so much…

I’ll wait to see the official rules on the payout structure for Millionaire for Life before I make any decisions whether to play regularly or not.  But weekly payouts instead of annually may not increase my odds of winning, but they would increase my odds of playing.

Good points. You could have the lottery deposit the money into an interest-bearing savings account and set up automatic transfers to your checking account. Make the transfers a bit less than 1/52 of the annual payment and save the difference plus interest.

You could transfer $7,000 per week and have about $50,000 left over each year from the $1M minus taxes.

The way I look at it is it is a great game to play while waiting for the 40 rolls on other games.

It will probably be my go to game until some other game is changed or a new one comes along.

I currently watch the 47, multi states, fast Cash and, when I win something, the $50 scratchies here in Michigan.  I do, on rare occasions, play some of the crappier games here though.

Md isn't on the list so I won't be playing. Oh, well.

Thanks for the update.

KLC didn't respond to my question if KY would get it or not...maybe they're worried about the storm that just hit here!

The $5 Prices going to turn off some players

*.. and California wants nothing to do with any of these games. 😑

Attack of the $5.00 Clones

It's gonna help me stop playing.

Yeah, very strange about the four states that currently have one of the two "for life" games and they're OK with losing the game with no replacement. Makes no sense to me.

• Delaware (Lucky for Life)
• Florida (Cash4Life)
• Maryland (Cash4Life)
• Missouri (Cash4Life)

It's probably because of their pari-mutuel law. It would be silly to offer a game called "millionaire for life" if it never pays a million dollars a year. Even the simple game of Pick 3 doesn't pay $500 for a $1 straight bet (it could, by chance). It's more than $500 if fewer than average tickets hit and less than $500 if more than average tickets hit it.

Delaware put out a media statement that players here were not interested in another $5 ticket game. Being a small state, lottery is not supported enough for the new game. They only allow a $400,000 loss on play 3 and play 4 numbers before a number is cutoff for sale.

Well there is quite a range of opinions on mil 4 life here in this forum.

First off thanks Kate for the info! 

I'm a lucky 4 life player but, I only play on mon and or thur when the pb and or mm is less than 250 mil (tho' I m thinking of raising the threshold to 300 or 350 mil).

I'm sorta a traditionalist on the Monday and Thursday  thing as the original drawings were held on these two days 

Now that the price has increased I will change one criteria .... that is I'll definitely only play Mon or Thur not both.  I can't imagine the 'powers that be' think anyone is gonna play daily at 5 dollars a pop ; that's 35 bucks a week!

And I'll probably take the cash cuz I'm over 50 and I don't trust the govt that if something happens that they won't be able to keep there word on the annuity.

Tho if I were younger by a couple of  decades and were naively trusting in the govt the annuity is less scary than having one big check and all that responsibility that it entails.  And I too would rather receive the annuity weekly rather than yearly.

Finally, Florida what the heqq? .... I'm surprised they aren't on board with this new game.

Have a shaggy day!

ShagE3

These state lotteries just keep getting greedier.

Me for one player also will NOT be playing because of the prices..I quit playing the mega millions because it went to five bucks and very few Ever win on any of of the big games the odds are against the little fella or should I say the less fortunate who haven't the resources to afford five dollars a game..

You said that right! And regular folks who work for a living can't afford it!

And nobody really wins anything major anyway if you look at the statistics very few people have ever won on Cash for Life or Lucky for Life in each state that has the games that's why I don't even bother playing when the Powerball gets big yeah that's a different story but if they raise their prices of $5 they won't have my business either

Hmmm...a lot of players are only seeing the $5 ticket cost.

What I'm seeing is that I can go for $1,000,000 per year for life or $18,000,000 lump sum at any time without having to wait for it to build up to that level.  On top of that the odds are ten times better than Mega Millions or Powerball.

No other game in Michigan will let you do that with no waiting(other than for the daily draw time).

To get a full week of Powerball and mega millions tickets is $16 to $22 depending on options.  For that money you can get 3 or 4 Millionaire for life tickets per week and actually have a chance to win something. The $250 prize level looks doable and to top that off the Million per year gives you an estimated post inflation value of $200,000 in 30 years and that assumes that you just collect it without investing any of it!

Looks like a good go to game to me for my state what about your state?

WOW!!! Normally every state lottery jumps on any new game to increase sales ect.  Very happy MDLottery is not.  Don't like the $5 cost, would have played if it was $2 a game. 

Maybe The Florida Lottery is simply playing it cool, but I doubt it.

Just because they haven't confirmed they'll offer one of the new games doesn't mean they never will. Maybe they simply didn't bother to confirm they'll offer one. Could be there's a bill moving through the Florida Assembly/Senate in Tallahassee authorizing it and it has yet to be sent to The Governors desk for signature. Gotta have the laws in place first. 

I do wonder why they haven't advertised anything  if they plan on offering one of them.  Getting close to the time when they'll have to do that. I live in Florida and I haven't seen posters in stores and there's nuthin on their website. 

To my mind, they wont want to lose the revenue Cash4Life is bringing in. If I'm the Florida Lottery I'm moving on it.  But what do I know???   G5

While I seriously doubt it, could The Florida Lottery actually be thinking "It's too expensive and players wont go for it?" 

My money is on this guess... There's a bill authorizing one of the games in The Florida State government that's  "stuck" and it hasn't  yet been sent to The Governor for signature. G5

Sad that many of them claim record breaking profits year after year but would still vote to increase the prices against their players. They don't even make the odds or prizes worth it. They should do these experiments for scratchers, not draw games

The odds are bad, the price of a ticket is bad. Lottery keeps finding ways to stop me from playing. I hope Maryland doesn't buy into it.

You make very good points.  Well stated!

I will play ..... but maybe not as often as the lotto powers that be expect of me.

I wonder what the powers that be project lotto players will spend in a week for mil 4 life?

Me? I'll play once per week on down pb/mm weeks ..... Meaning if those two games are below 350/400 mil I'll abstain from them and buy a ticket but, only one a week.  Maybe two a week but, I try to set up rules for me to adhere to and stay disciplined.

Have a shaggy day!

ShagE3 

PS does anybody remember the late 70s early 80s tv show about the lotto where two agents were sent out to notify the jackpot winner?

I rarely win "anything" with the Mega millions $5 game; now another one......😒

disappointed, same!!!

This is just ludicrous! Another $5 lottery! Only ones getting rich are the states moving forward on this money grab! This really stinks! I was a true CFL player, but now my purchases will be limited if I even buy! Pure GREED!!!!!!

Exactly! 🙄

I'm in FL too, and Cash4life was the draw I played the most. I liked the $2 price without any possible add-ons. Cheap and simple, no additional milking for cash because you'd regret not adding on extras in case you win.

For $5, I'm out entirely. I stopped playing Megamillions when they raised it to $5.

I wonder ..... what if X number of people win the top prize and choose the CASH option will mil 4 life pay them in full ie 18 mil each?

Have a shaggy day?

ShagE3

I am thinking the reason for the 5 dollar price tag is because of the odds of the top prize are like 1:22.9 million which are better than lucky for life and way way way better than mega and powerball

  No one was really playing it at 2.00. It drew in some play but the prizes are not what most lottery players are seeking and now for 5.00 a line this game will die a quick death.

I have to believe that buried somewhere in the Official Rules for Millionaire 4 Life there is a statement that states if more than a specified number of players win the top prize in the same drawing, and the prize pool cant cover the amount required to pay them all the advertised top prize, then it will be come parimutuel. Or something like that... 

My question is where are the Official Rules for the game published?  G5

It doesn't matter which option the winners choose. The top prize is split among all winners. Two winners means they can choose between $500,000/year or $9 million lump sum.

The second prize is not pari-mutuel unless 21 or more win it.

https://millionaire-for-life.com/cash-vs-annuity

With daily drawings, this is pretty unlikely, unless the game gets very popular.

I also believe that while multiple winners of the jackpot in the same drawing is definitely possible, that that's an outlier.  It could happen but it very likely won't.  And state lottery's know that.  My guess is that they have it covered in the Official Rules, but they aren't thinking they'll have to resort using to that rule. 

I play PB for a second prize win and I buy the PowerPlay option. I play the exact same line five times on my ticket. If I matched the first five numbers, but not the PowerBall,  I supposedly could win ten million dollars. I've wondered if there would there be enough money in the second place prize pool to pay me all ten million.  I dunno. Hopefully there is. But I do believe somewhere in PB's rules there is language that says what they will do if there is not. They aint ever had that problem to my knowledge. I wanna be the guy that scares the you know what outta them. Even if they can't cover 10 million, I'd still take whatever they said they'll pay. G5

Neither is my state, Louisiana. I'm not too far from the Mississippi border so maybe I'll have to cross the line every now and then to give it a try. If it were in my area, I might play it occasionally, but not every day.

The $5 MegaMillions hasn't done very well and it will be interesting to see how this does.

You make good points, but everyone's situation is different. In my current situation, I'd take the lump sum and invest it. If something happens to me, I want my wife to be well provided for permanently, not just for the duration of the annuity. 

If I was single, I'd take the annual payments since it would only be me to worry about. For the annual payments, I'd take a certain amount to live on and place the rest in investments and savings. 

The $5 MegaMillions supposedly hasn't done so well and it's only twice a week, I wonder how this $5/Day game will do. We'll just have to wait and see.

I dunno....

Everybody says MM's days are numbered due to this 5 dollars a line BS. 

Casinos in Vegas dont fail because they can afford to fail. It's either that or they're too big to fail. 

IMHO MUSL and MM cant and wont fail for the very same reasons. G5 

keep it going nj lottery what are the odds its us against the nj lottery will always win were just wasting our money for 5 bucks a ticket no thanks I dont even play mega

The Michigan Lottery started in 1972.  According to the official inflation calculator $1 in 1972 was$7.69 last year.

Point being wages have not kept pace with inflation. The $5 ticket price seems expensive due to that.

It's a result of the "giant sucking sound" and the international race to the bottom that we were warned about in the 90's.

Everything IS expensive due to low wages. The old rules of thumb tell us just how expensive.

Those are divide your annual pay by 3 to figure out how much you can spend on a car

Multiply your annual pay by 2.5 to get the figure for an affordable house.

Not to mention how ridiculously expensive health care and college and food are et al.

$150,000 to $180,000 per year sounds like a lot but not when you compare it to prices.

150k/3 = 50k or the average price of a new car. 

With all the other prices the 150k to 180k is the new 60k pay.

People have not grasped yet how underpayed they are relative to inflation.

When it finally dawns on them maybe they will start complaining how low payed they are and stop complaining about the $5 ticket price.

The lotteries are just adjusting to the realities of how much inflation there has truly been.

Your employers are all laughing and hope you don't notice that they have not kept your pay at pace with inflation.

It's all part of the international race to the bottom that went full bore in the 90's

"Players will be able to purchase advance multi-draw tickets for Millionaire for Life in blocks of 28, 21, 14, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, or 1. "

Basic Cost Matrix

I'll play every now and then.

The odds of winning the top prize are not outrageous like PB/MM.

There are no mandatory multipliers, like MM and Colorado's Lotto+.

Your employers are all laughing and hope you don't notice that they have not kept your pay at pace with inflation.

Yup. But executive pay hasn't ever had a problem with inflation.  G5

$5 a ticket is pretty lame. I most likely won't play unless I win some cash from fantasy 5 and use some of the winnings to play millionaire for life.

YES, Delaware is a small state and does not have the players like other states.  I lived close enough to play in Delaware and you could definitely tell they didn't have the players Maryland did.   I am sure they want to 'protect' their scratch off games so players spend on those instead. 

Game Comparison 

Player Buying Power

$5 for 1 ticket wth 

not playing every day

For some reason, Florida is always last to the party, and it seems we won't be at this one either. We were last to join Powerball and MegaMillions also.

Just as well, I suppose. We don't have a winning record with these multi-state games, and $5 a day on one game is more than I need to be spending.

FL here too. Since mega million went to $5 and now this, it's time to cut out some games. I hope FL gets it but I think it will be a weekend game for me.

Since FL is not jumping on the $5/ticket bandwagon, I guess I'll just have to miss Cash For Life. Just barely missed two 2 second prizes in Dec 2024. Only game that has reasonable odds to win enough money to be comfortable for a long time.

I wouldn't be able to afford the $25 a draw to pick a set of numbers everyday and cover all the Cash Balls like I can do for $8 now, so I might have only played one ticket 3 or 4 times a week. 

HOWEVER...they could raise the jackpot as they have and left the price at $2, and after reading this article I would have never bought another ticket. Random Number Generator? Really??? Ask Eddie Tipton how easy those are to work around. Or just look at the Mississippi Pick 4 daily numbers for January.

So bye-bye C4L. FL is keeping a tight lid on what they'll do to replace it. It was only bringing in about a million a week. I'm guessing Lotto will go to 3 days a week, or Jackpot Combo will be an everyday game, with maybe a $3M max jackpot instead of the current $2M.

I suspect that Florida 1) doesn't think M4L will fly at $5 a ticket; 2) doesn't need a game with nearly identical odds as Florida Lotto yet a sad bottom line compared to Lotto; and 3) They might be trying to salvage the Jackpot Triple Play game by stretching it out to seven days a week.

And, one extra Lotto drawing would more than replace M4L revenue and income. For the life of both games, Lotto has grossed $3.4M per draw after paying out prize money- C4L only $113K.

So we're really not getting this in FL? That sucks. Hopefully I can hit on Cash4life before it ends

I think it's more that FL doesn't want to pay out the top prize if won lol.

I've enjoyed C4L in TN for years but I love LFL even more. I get multi draws in other states and do so much better. 
I boycotted MM with the $5 change but admittedly play it here and there. 
Not planning to play this Millionaire for life a whole lot. I'll buy a few but it just p1sse$ me off.

I think this is the first draw game I've ever heard of that doesn't pay if you only hit the extra ball (Millionaire's Ball in this case).

I'll play on Thursday and Sunday when nothing else big is drawing.  No way am I playing every day.

I haven't paid any attention to this game nut I just saw it on the NY lottery's home page for the first time. Obviously everybody gets to decide  whether or not they want to play, but here are a couple of thoughts.

The first is largely about playing this or playing PB (or MM) when the jackpot is still small. Generally, at least 8 to 10 million people (5 to 7 isn't unusual for Monday drawings) spend $2 when the annuity is $20 to $30 million (even if you die before the drawing) and the cash value is 9 to $14 million. A fair number of those people pay $3 for a ticket that makes the 1 in 11.7 million chance of winning 2nd place worth $2 million instead of $1.  Compared to that, $5 to be 13 times more likely to win $18 million (or $1 million per year if you're still young*) makes more sense. If you only play once a week it's $1 (or $4) less than 3 PB drawings per week and you're still 3.3 times as likely to win the jackpot. Your chance at 2nd place drops to only 2/3 your chance of winning the 2nd place PB prize, but it's a bit more than twice as  much money, or a hair more for just over half the ticket price if you get Power Play.

Of course I'm working on the theory that there won't be multiple winners, but that seems unlikely unless the game becomes much more popular than seems likely or the winning numbers are in the small subset of numbers played more often than probability suggest. That said, The ripoff I see is making the top two prizes (possibly) parimutuel, not $5 for the ticket and odds. Probability says that games that increase the jackpot when there isn't a winner should, in the long run, still have the payouts expected by probability, but there's an enormous risk when the jackpot gets really big. With millionaire for life the risk, like the jackpot, never increases. Based on the odds There should be 1 jackpot winner and 4 2nd prize winners for every 22,910,580  tickets sold. That brings in $114,552,900  and the expected payout is $60,582,757.69 (52.9%). PB and MM have a rule that allows lower tier prizes to become parimutuel if the number of winners is  unusual enough, and there's no reason a similar rule couldn't be used here to eliminate the risk. Of course there's a chance that this game could have its own fortune cookie episode, but regardless of the reason for an unusual number of winners a parimutuel option would eliminate the risk of a major loss.

"I think this is the first draw game I've ever heard of that doesn't pay if you only hit the extra ball (Millionaire's Ball in this case). "

How many games give you a 1 in 5 chance of that? Even if the prize was only $1 the expected payout would add $4.58 million to the total prize payout for every $114,552,900 in revenue. $2 would obviously double it, and I think most players would fine a prize, even though it's an additional prize, of less than the ticket cost at least as problematic as the $5 ticket cost itself.

"I'll play on Thursday and Sunday when nothing else big is drawing. "

Maybe that and the people who always have to take a chance when it's offered are what they're counting on to bring in the money. I suspect a lot of other players will also figure it's a way to have a chance every day of the week. The problem is that if those days each get more than 1/7 of the  total ticket sales  the chance of sharing the jackpot will be higher than on other days. I also suspect that there may be more players when PB and MM have lower jackpots, and  the decent odds to win $18 million will seem less appealing when bigger PB or MM jackpots change the odds:prize  value. That would mean the best time to play millionaire for life is on days that the PB or MM drawing is offering a much bigger prize.

* The annuity for this generally makes even less sense than with PB or MM, especially for anyone over 50ish. At 50 and with average health you've got a pretty good chance of living long enough to collect more than the 20 payments minimum, but the break even point may still be farther down the road. If you lose 45% to taxes you'll still have $9.9 million from the lump sum. At a modest and safe 4% you can earn 396k per year, and the same 45% loss to taxes will let you spend 217.8k per year without touching the principal, so in 20 years you can still have $9.9 million (ignoring the possibility of spending more due to inflation). The same tax brackets would let you keep a bit more than 55% of each annual payment of $1 million, so let's call the after tax income 600k. Spend the same 217.8k and you can invest $382.2k each year. If you put that in a tax-deferred investment at the same 4% and cash out after 25 years paying 45% in income tax will leave you with $8.754 million.

For those who plan on a better ROI, that can actually push the break even point farther down the road given the same spending. At 6% the lump sum lets you spend 326.7k without touching the principal, but the annuity still only gives you 600k after taxes. Spend the same 326.7k each year and you're only investing 273.3k instead of 382.2k.

* The annuity for this generally makes even less sense than with PB or MM, especially for anyone over 50ish.

I'm over 50 and I already have plans to get a full body MRI from someplace like Ezra before I decide whether to take the annuity or cash.  If I don't have any serious illnesses, it'll be annuity.  People are often living into their 90's these days.  My family isn't especially long lived but I take better care of myself than the rest of them do.

https://ezra.com/pricing

I always played the Cash 4 Life for $2.00 and liked it, but never won much with it. I won way more through Match 6, and smaller games like Pick 3 and Pick 4. That is the only way I will be playing a $5.00 game mostly, if I have a bunch of other winning tickets. $5.00 is too much to lose, and for $10.00 you only get two tickets which are almost guaranteed to lose, when you could get 10 other $1.00 tickets instead, or 5 $2.00 tickets.

But the payout is much better at about $750,000 a year, or $13.5 million after taxed which you could invest at 4.0% for about $550,000 a year in interest annually, or about $45,500 a month on average the first year. Principal: $13,500,000.00 interest 4% after 5 years $2,983,454.02. Total: $16,483,454.02.  A $45,000 check a month would be REALLY nice lol. Which would only get higher if you did not spend much, about $54,762.31 by the end of the 5th year.

But if you lived off that only, which is WAY more than I would ever need, I would at least keep getting the $45,000 a month from the principal or more later. So that is still a nice amount for life, and with MUCH better odds than the PB or MM games, but also MUCH less money overall. But I could live with that lol.