We’ve been watching some of the comments on social media about Lucky for Life®, and there seems to be confusion about the length of time involved in the pay-out of the game’s top prizes.
Some of the confusion likely came about after our first big winner in the game chose the lump-sum payout option for his prize, which certainly was his prerogative. Let’s take a closer look at the larger prizes in Lucky for Life and how they work.
There are 10 prize levels in the Lucky for Life game, ranging from $3 up to $1,000 a day for life. The top two prize levels in the game are what get the most attention, because they’re for life, meaning that they last as long as you do.
You win the game’s top prize of $1,000 a day for life by matching all six winning numbers in one of its drawings. The game’s second prize level of $25,000 a year for life comes from matching the first five numbers but missing the Lucky Ball.
So, what does “for life” mean? It really does mean for life, but there are some qualifiers to that answer. The MINIMUM payment period for the game’s top two prize levels is 20 years. So, if you were to win one of those prizes at 55 but die at 70, you (and your estate) would still receive 20 years’ worth of payments. But let’s say you win the game’s top prize when you’re 35, you choose the annuity option and you live to be 85. In that instance, the payments would continue that entire time, for 50 years.
There is a lump-sum option for the top two prizes, should you want cash up front. The lump-sum option for the top prize is $5.75 million while the lump-sum option for the second prize is $390,000.
In March, Roy King of Sioux City won the game’s second prize of $25,000 a year for life. He chose to receive his prize as the lump-sum option, which may have blurred the lines a bit for some folks about the payout periods in the game.
We hope this explanation helps!
Hello! Great question. The first payment would be made within a few weeks (around three weeks) after you claimed the prize. That would allow time for the annuities to be issued that would be used to pay the prize over time and to take care of some other details that have to be completed before the first payment can be made.
Posted by: Mary Neubauer | May 03, 2016 at 01:19 PM
Hi, Phillip. You're correct -- lottery purchases are an option for you and any other consumer. Food and medicine are necessities, lottery tickets are in the entertainment category, meaning they're something on which people spend their disposable income. We do our best to come up with entertaining games that offer entertainment to our customers, so we're sorry to hear that you're unhappy with our products. But I can tell you that the lottery's prize payouts and prize percentages in its games have gone up, not down. We appreciate you reaching out to us here on the blog.
Posted by: Mary Neubauer | May 03, 2016 at 01:16 PM
So do you have to wait a year for the first payment?
Posted by: C Clifton | May 03, 2016 at 01:05 PM
scratch tickets particularly on the low end just don't pay off like they used to. the casinos give more bang for the buck. Your not the only game in town any more, and you the dollar to five group hardly ever see a winner. Most of us don't want to waste money on the high end and usually lose any way so anything over five is off to the casino.
Posted by: Phillip Severson | May 03, 2016 at 09:07 AM
Good question, Eric! As an Iowa Lottery player, the top two prizes in the game would be paid on an annual basis if you chose the annuity option.
Posted by: Mary Neubauer | April 29, 2016 at 03:09 PM