Cash4Life is being replaced—and for many players, it’s the end of an era. Across multiple jurisdictions, Cash4Life and Lucky for Life ticket sales ended on February 21, 2026, with final drawings tied to that retirement timeline. In their place, the Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL) is rolling out a new daily, multi-jurisdiction draw game: Millionaire for Life, launching with first draws beginning February 22, 2026.
At NichebrAI Stats Lab, we treat this transition like any other major lottery change: we break down the rules, the math, and the practical implications for players who track results, compare odds, and care about game structure—without hype, and without any “guaranteed win” talk. Lotteries are random by design. Your best edge is understanding the format and playing responsibly.
Cash4Life and Lucky for Life ended: what happened on Feb 21, 2026?
For years, Cash4Life and Lucky for Life filled a distinct niche: life-changing annuity-style prizes (often with cash options) with drawings more frequent than big jackpot games. But multi-state games evolve, and MUSL periodically refreshes offerings based on player interest, portfolio strategy, and state-by-state participation.
On February 21, 2026, many participating lotteries ended sales (and scheduled their final draw windows) for Cash4Life and Lucky for Life. If you’ve ever purchased multi-draw (advance play) tickets, you likely noticed a “step-down” period where the maximum advance draws gradually reduced as the end date approached—an operational necessity to prevent selling tickets beyond a game’s final drawing.
Key takeaway: if you were a Cash4Life or Lucky for Life regular, your routine didn’t disappear—it migrated. The replacement is designed to preserve the “for life” concept, but with a new format and different probability profile.
Meet the replacement: Millionaire for Life (launching Feb 22, 2026)
Millionaire for Life is the new multi-jurisdiction daily draw game that replaces Cash4Life and Lucky for Life in many participating areas. The headline is straightforward: a higher-priced ticket, a simple two-pool draw structure, and a top annuity prize built around a “millionaire” theme.
If you want the most up-to-date hub that tracks jurisdiction details and the official format in one place, use our Millionaire for Life game hub.
Basic rules (the quick, accurate version)
- Ticket cost: $5 per play
- Pick 5 numbers: choose five “main” numbers from 1 to 58
- Pick 1 Millionaire Ball: choose one additional number from 1 to 5
- Draw schedule: drawings held daily at 11:15 PM ET
This design resembles the “two-pool” approach players recognize from games like Powerball: you match the main numbers, and you match the special ball. The combination determines the prize tier.
How the draw structure changes the math
When a lottery changes formats, the most important shift is usually the number of possible combinations. That’s what drives jackpot odds and helps determine how frequently different prize tiers hit.
Millionaire for Life uses:
- Main pool: 58 numbers, choose 5 (combinations)
- Special pool: 5 numbers, choose 1
From a probability standpoint, the total combination space is the number of ways to choose 5 from 58 multiplied by the 5 possible Millionaire Balls. In other words, the game’s jackpot odds are anchored by a very large sample space—exactly what you’d expect from a multi-state “big promise, low probability” structure.
In official materials, the published top-prize odds are approximately 1 in 22.9 million, and the overall odds of winning any prize are around 1 in 8.46. Those figures can vary slightly depending on jurisdiction notes, but they are the baseline reference for understanding how “rare” the top outcomes are versus the more frequent small wins.
Nine ways to win (why small prizes matter in analytics)
Millionaire for Life advertises nine ways to win. From an analytics perspective, this matters because player experience is shaped less by the once-in-a-lifetime jackpot and more by how often lower tiers hit (and what those payouts look like after taxes and claim rules).
Even if you never chase the top prize, tracking distribution across tiers helps answer practical questions like:
- How often does “one main + Millionaire Ball” occur compared to “three main only”?
- Do the most common prize tiers offset ticket cost in any meaningful way over time? (Usually, no—but the data tells the story.)
- How volatile are outcomes across weeks or months of daily drawings?
At NichebrAI Stats Lab, we model these outcomes the way you’d model any random process: expected value is shaped by payout tables and odds, while real-world results will fluctuate because randomness clusters naturally.
Where to check winning numbers and results
Because Millionaire for Life draws every night, the most useful habit is consistency: check the official results, compare to your ticket, and log outcomes if you’re tracking patterns (for entertainment and analysis—not prediction).
To stay current, use our results page to check tonight’s winning numbers and review recent draws in one place.
What Cash4Life and Lucky for Life players should know going forward
If you played Cash4Life or Lucky for Life because you liked the “steady, daily” rhythm, Millionaire for Life keeps that daily cadence, but it changes the economics:
- Higher cost per play: $5 means fewer plays for the same budget.
- Different combination space: new pools mean new odds and new tier frequencies.
- Operational transition: during launch weeks, some states may display “coming soon” messaging, adjusted multi-draw limits, or retailer guidance as the new game rolls out.
Responsible note: if you’re moving from a $2 game to a $5 game, consider setting a fixed entertainment budget and sticking to it. The draw is still random; the ticket price doesn’t change that.
Bottom line: an “evergreen” way to think about the new game
Cash4Life and Lucky for Life ending on February 21, 2026 marks a clear handoff to a new daily “for life” concept. Millionaire for Life begins on February 22, 2026 with a simple rule set—pick 5 (1–58) plus 1 Millionaire Ball (1–5)—and nightly drawings at 11:15 PM ET.
From an analytical perspective, the game’s most important features are stable and easy to track over time: fixed pools, published odds, and daily cadence. If you want to follow the format, participating jurisdictions, and updates, start with our Millionaire for Life rules and participating states hub—and when it’s time to verify outcomes, use the latest Millionaire for Life results page.
NichebrAI Stats Lab is an analytics platform. We don’t claim to predict lottery outcomes—because no one can. What we can do is help you understand the game mechanics, the probabilities, and the real data behind the drawings.