Annuity Lottery Games
An annuity lottery is a type of game where one or more of the prizes is paid out over a long period of time. With a jackpot worth €20,000 a month for 30 years, EuroDreams has quickly established itself as Europe’s biggest annuity lottery.
Find out more about the benefits of annuity lotteries versus traditional draw games, and why they are becoming increasingly popular.
Around the World
Annuity lotteries have been played in other parts of the world – most notably North America – for decades. Even the biggest U.S. games – Powerball and Mega Millions – offer jackpots that can be paid out on an annual basis over 30 years. When the grand prize for one of these multi-state games is advertised as $1 billion or more, for example, that is the annuitized value and shows what it will be worth if the lottery invests the money for you. The annual payments are graduated so they increase year on year.
Other annuity lotteries pay out a fixed sum on a monthly or yearly basis. Here’s a rundown of some of the best:
Cash4Life
This U.S. game, played in 10 jurisdictions – has a top prize of $1,000 a day for life. To play, pick five numbers from 1 to 60 and a Cash Ball from 1 to 4.
Daily Grand
Played in Canada, this game also offers $1,000 a day for life, plus a second prize of $25,000 a year for life. It is also known as Grande Vie in Quebec. You have to pick five main numbers from 1 to 49 and a Grand Number between 1 and 7.
Set For Life
The UK launched its own annuity lottery, Set For Life, in early 2019 with a top prize of £10,000 a month for 30 years, plus a second prize of £10,000 a month for one year.
Benefits of Annuities
There are several advantages to annuity lotteries over draws which offer a one-time jackpot payment. The appeal of receiving annual or monthly prizes is ultimately why annuity lotteries have become more popular around the world, and why EuroDreams was launched. Here are some of the benefits:
Guaranteed Income
Win the top prize in EuroDreams, or another annuity lottery, you are guaranteed to receive payments every month (or year in some cases), for decades to come. This allows you to plan your spending and keep enjoying the wealth as it is guaranteed to last for at least as long as the payments are made. If you get a jackpot as a lump sum in some other draw game, there is a chance that you could spend it all at once and then have nothing left for the future.
Financial Protection
Annuity lotteries are set up to help winners and their families for years, even generations to come. In EuroDreams, if a winner dies before they have received all their payments, the rest of the money is given to their estate. Even in other annuity lotteries where the top prizes are paid out ‘for life’, there is a minimum period of 20 or 30 years and if a winner dies early then the remaining money goes to the estate.
Favourable Odds
Annuity lotteries usually have better odds in comparison to the biggest draw games. For example, your chances of winning the top prize in EuroDreams are 1 in 19,191,900, making it around seven times more likely than EuroMillions, where the odds are 1 in 139,838,160.
While anyone over the age of 18 can play EuroDreams, it is primarily aimed at younger lottery fans as it offers financial benefits for the next three decades. The top prize is always a fixed amount, so you know what you stand to win before you play. In other games, it can take several rollovers to build up a big jackpot. The top prize in other games is often an estimated amount that can also be split if there are multiple winners. The EuroDreams jackpot will only be reduced in very rare circumstances.
Annuity lotteries give you another option when deciding on the type of game you want to play. All the National Lotteries that offer EuroDreams, for example, also have a range of other games available with various prize structures.