RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — The Virginia Lottery said Wednesday that it is retiring the Win for Life game and replacing it with a new game with a top prize of $1 million.
Tickets for the Virginia-only $1 Million Money Ball will go on sale Sunday. Drawings will be on Wednesday and Saturday nights, starting next week.
The new game is similar to the original Virginia Lotto, except that the top prize is a fixed amount rather than a jackpot that grows until there is a winner. Here’s how it works:
The player selects five numbers out of 35. The Lottery will draw five numbered balls out of 36. That’s 35 numbered balls plus one Gold Million Dollar Money Ball. If the gold ball is drawn, an additional numbered ball is also drawn and the top prize increases from $100,000 to $1 million. The odds of winning the $1 million prize are 1 in more than 2.3 million. Players also can win $2, $10 or $100, depending on how many numbers they match.
“Players like to have new games not only with the scratch tickets, where we introduce four or five new games a month, but also on the draw side,” said Paula Otto, executive director of the Virginia Lottery.
Win for Life made its debut eight years ago. It was once a three-state game with Georgia and Kentucky, but those two states previously abandoned the game.
Sales figures show that interest in Win for Life waned in Virginia. After peaking at more than $41,000 in fiscal year 2007, Win for Life sales declined every year, bottoming out at $14,870 in the fiscal year that ended June 30.
Forty-four Virginia players won $1,000 per week in Win for Life, which will end its run Saturday.
