Cash4Life is an American multi-state lottery game offering daily draws with appealing lifetime prizes: $1000 per day for life as top prize and $1000 per week for life as second prize.
The Cash4Life game is offered by ten state lotteries: Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Tennessee and Missouri. New York and New Jersey as the founding states started selling Cash4Life tickets on June 13, 2014. Pennsylvania, Virginia and Tennessee joined in 2015; Georgia, Indiana, and Maryland in 2016, Florida in 2017. In April 2021, the Missouri Lottery adding the Cash4Life multi-state game to its lineup.
Cash4Life Lottery Overview
- Play format: 5 out of 60 + 1 out of 4
- Draw days: Monday through Sunday, 9 PM EDT
- Overall odds : 1 in 7.76
- Jackpot odds: 1 in 21,846,048
- Jackpot: $1.000 per day for 20 years
- Cash Option: $7 million
How to Play Cash4Life Online
Playing Cash4Life online is very easy: all you need to do is pick the five main numbers and the Cash Ball. Moreover, you can enter the Cash4Life draws online even if you are not in one of the 10 participating states.
When playing online, you have two options:
- You can play using the services of a lottery messenger such as theLotter. In this case, a physical ticket will be purchased for you from an official lottery retailer by the courier.
- You can choose to bet on the results of the Cash4Life draws on one of the betting-on platforms such as Lottoland or WinTrillions.
Read our “Lottery Betting vs. Messenger” guide to understand the differences between the two types of lottery services providers, and which are the advantages and disadvantages each of them offers.
The rules of this exciting game are quite simple:
- Select 5 main numbers between 1 and 60 and the Cash Ball between 1 and 4.
- Match all 5 numbers and the Cash Ball to win the top prize: $1000 per day for life
When are the Cash4Life Draws?
Cash4Life draws take place every day of the week, Monday through Sunday, at 9 PM EDT, at New Jersey Lottery Headquarters at Lawrence Park Complex in Trenton, New Jersey. While the draws of in-house New Jersey Lottery games are held in Studio A, the Cash4Life draws are held in Studio B.
You can watch the Cash4Life draws live here. Every night, you can watch the Cash4Life officials as they draw the five main numbers from 1 to 60 and then a Cash Ball from a separate number barrel which includes numbers from 1 to 4.
How Big is the Cash4Life Jackpot?
As the name puts it, Cash4Life offers all those who match the 5 winning numbers and the Cash Ball a prize worth $1000 per day for life (at least 20 years). If you are the single jackpot winner of the daily draw, you can scoop the prize as an annuity of $365,000 or take the lump sum option, which translates into $7 million.
Cash4Life top prize does not have roll-overs. If there is more than one jackpot winner, the prize will be divided equally among the winners.
New Jersey Lottery requires players to make a choice regarding the prize claiming option (cash or annuity) when purchasing the ticket. If you choose the cash option, this choice is legally binding and you are not allowed to change your mind after winning the prize. However, if you chose the annuity option, you can still decide to take the cash option when claiming the prize.
When playing Cash4Life online from outside the US with a lottery courier service, the only jackpot claiming option you have is the lump sum.
Cash4Life Prizes & Odds
The Cash4Life lottery is quite different from the traditional lotto games in two ways. First of all, it offers daily draws, every single day of the week. Therefore, you have more chances of winning prizes compared to a lottery which draws winning numbers once a week like EuroJackpot or even twice a week like EuroMillions.
Then, Cash4Life offers a different kind of prizes, especially for the two top tiers, expressed as an amount per day or per week for as long as you live (or at least 20 years). The $7 million lump sum may sound small when compared to the billion-dollar jackpots offered by Powerball or Mega Millions. However, when you cash yearly the equivalent of $1000 per day, you can certainly live a worry-free life.
The odds of one in 21,846,048 to hit the Cash4Life jackpot are certainly appealing, making this daily draw game one of the best lotteries to play online.
Match | Odds | Prize |
⚪⚪⚪⚪⚪ + 🟠 | 1: 21,846,048 | $1,000/day for life |
⚪⚪⚪⚪⚪ | 1: 7,282,016 | $1,000/week for life |
⚪⚪⚪⚪ + 🟠 | 1: 79,440 | $2,500 |
⚪⚪⚪⚪ | 1: 26,480 | $500 |
⚪⚪⚪ + 🟠 | 1: 1,471 | $100 |
⚪⚪⚪ | 1: 490 | $25 |
⚪⚪ + 🟠 | 1: 83 | $10 |
⚪⚪ | 1: 28 | $4 |
⚪ + 🟠 | 1: 13 | Free ticket |
Cash4Life Doubler
Those who purchase their Cash4Life tickets in New Jersey can also add, for a small extra fee, a multiplier called Doubler to their lines. The Doubler applies to all “not-for-life” prizes, doubling their amount. So, for instance, if you win the 3rd prize worth $2,500, you can cash $5,000 if you had Doubler on your ticket.
Match | Regular amount | Doubler amount |
⚪⚪⚪⚪⚪ + 🟠 | $1,000/day for life | $1,000/day for life |
⚪⚪⚪⚪⚪ | $1,000/week for life | $1,000/week for life |
⚪⚪⚪⚪ + 🟠 | $2,500 | $5,000 |
⚪⚪⚪⚪ | $500 | $1,000 |
⚪⚪⚪ + 🟠 | $100 | $200 |
⚪⚪⚪ | $25 | $50 |
⚪⚪ + 🟠 | $10 | $20 |
⚪⚪ | $4 | $8 |
⚪ + 🟠 | Free ticket ($2) | Free ticket x2 ($4) |
Taxes on UTaxes on Cash4Life Prizes
Cash4Life prizes are subject to two types of taxes: federal and state. Federal income taxes will be withheld from all prizes that are over $600. Besides, there are state taxes:
- In Georgia and New Jersey – 6%
- In Indiana – 3.4%
- In New York – 8.82%
- In Pennsylvania – 3.07%
- In Virginia and Missouri – 4%
- Maryland residents have to pay a state tax of 8,75%, while prizes won on tickets purchased in Maryland by non-residents of the state have to pay a tax of 7.5%
- The states of Florida and Tennessee do not have state taxes on lottery winnings.
Cash4Life prizes can be claimed only in the state where the ticket was purchased, within a deadline of 180 days after the draw. Cash4Life jackpots won on tickets purchased in Florida have 60 days to claim their prize in order to be allowed to choose the cash option.
FAQs about Cash4Life
Yes. If a draw results in more than one jackpot winner, the top prize amount of $7,000,000 will be shared among all top prize winners in all Cash4Life states. If there are more than five second prize winners, the total fund of $5,000,000 will be divided by the number of second prize winners.
In the event that any single draw should have more than seven jackpot winning tickets and at least one second prize winner, both the jackpot and the second prize will become pari-mutuel prizes.
When a jackpot prize is not claimed by the end of the claim period (180 days), the funds will be returned to the lottery members in their proportion of sales. All funds for unclaimed Cash4Life non-jackpot prizes stay in the state where the winning tickets were sold.
In this unfortunate situation, the Cash4Life annual payment option prize will go into the deceased winner’s estate if the minimum 20 annual payments have not been fulfilled. Annual prize payments can continue to be paid to heirs, or the annual payment option may be cashed out by the winner’s estate.