Multi-State Lottery Association Reveals Plans For Two New National Games Coming This Year

There’s much more to playing the lottery than just the massive Powerball and Mega Millions draws, as the Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL) reminded us with two new game announcements in the past week.

Last Thursday, the MUSL announced the forthcoming national draw game Millionaire for Life, which goes live in 31 jurisdictions beginning Sunday, Feb. 22.

And on Saturday, industry publication Lottery Post reported that the MUSL had announced X’s and O’s, its new Powerball game in partnership with the NFL, widely known to be in the works for the past couple of years. While initially, that game was optimistically targeted for launch in time for the 2025 NFL season, now the plan is to snap the ball in August, ahead of the 2026 football season.

You look like a million bucks

At a cost of $5 per ticket, the Millionaire for Life game will be available in Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia, Vermont, West Virginia, Wyoming, and Washington, D.C.

New York is also expected to offer the game, but hasn’t signed on officially as of press time.

The grand prize in the game, as the name indicates, is a pre-tax payment of $1 million per year for life — with a minimum of 20 annual payouts. There is also a second-tier prize of $100,000 per year for life.

Winners can also elect to take a lump-sum cash payment instead of the annuity.

According to the MUSL announcement, the chance of winning at least the minimum prize is a solid 1 in 8.46, while the grand prize odds come in at 1 in 22.9 million.

“Millionaire for Life offers premier ‘for-life’ prizing that players, especially younger players, have gravitated toward,” Millionaire for Life Product Group Chair Tom Seaver, who is also senior director of the Colorado Lottery, said in a release. “Imagine winning $1 million a year, year after year — this game is designed to deliver on its name.”

Millionaire for Life is replacing Lucky for Life and/or Cash4Life in assorted states. Those games are being retired, with their final drawings set for Feb. 21.

Lottery leaders tackle the NFL

The forthcoming NFL lottery game, meanwhile, doesn’t have nearly as big an emphasis on the cash available to be won, focusing instead on NFL-related experiences as prizes. Some of the ideas floated at a recent industry conference included a suite at the Super Bowl or even the opportunity to announce a draft pick at the podium for your favorite team.

There will also be cash prizes, including a progressive jackpot.

The details of X’s and O’s haven’t been completely ironed out yet, but one revealed feature is that instead of selecting numbers, customers will select eight of the 32 NFL teams to make up their ticket.

The plan is reportedly to have one X’s and O’s drawing each week, taking place on Sundays.