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Becoming a multi-millionaire off a lottery scratch ticket. A recent winner in Texas is proof. The big win is the first of four top prizes worth $3 million to be claimed in the.

1. A Pint of Milk Worth a Million. The final story comes from the IK where yet another man won the top prize a scratch card lottery can produce – one million pounds. In the summer of 2017, the 69-year-old Bill Bett saw 1MIL appear on his ticket after scathing it off. Bill believed that he had won one pint of milk.
2. Every new roll of lottery scratch off tickets is guaranteed a certain number of winners — which vary by game. This is not to say that these will all be big winners. In fact, one-dollar winning tickets are far more common than $500, $1,000, or jackpot winners.

Scratch-off lottery tickets are one of the most widely available forms of gambling that you can take part in. These tickets are usually in the price range of about $1 to $30, and allow you to win prizes that range anywhere from a free chance at another lottery ticket, to jackpots in the tens of millions of dollars.

But what is the true value of a lottery ticket? The state lotteries have to be making a profit, but how large of a profit are they actually making? Are tickets worth 99% of the price you pay for them? 85%? What about 50%? Considering the amount of people that play these scratch off lottery games, it’s kind of surprising how this information is not common knowledge.

In this article, we’ll be going over how to calculate the expected value of a lottery ticket, and finding out how large of a return we should expect to see from our purchase.

First of all, we’re going to need some data. In order to calculate the true value of a lottery ticket, we will need each prize, along with the odds of winning that prize. Fortunately for us, many state lotteries provide these detailed odds on their websites. Today we’ll be looking at the value of scratch offs from the California State Lottery.

The PDF below gives us all of the ongoing games and possible prizes to win, which is all that we need in order to calculate the expected value of a ticket. This chart shows the possible prizes and odds of a $30 game called $10,000,000 Bankroll, which we will be using as our example.

The way that we can calculate the true value of this ticket is by finding the value of each individual prize, and then adding all of those values up.

To find the value of the possibility of winning an individual prize, we can use the following formula:

Let’s first calculate how much the chance to win $10,000,000 is worth. We have a 1 in 3,000,000 chance at winning $10,000,000, so $10,000,000 * (1 / 3,000,000) = $3.33. This means that the chance of winning $10,000,000 from this ticket is worth $3.33 on its own.

When we use this formula for all 12 possible prizes we could win from this ticket and add them all up, we get a total value of $23.96. However, this ticket costs $30 to buy, which means that on average, you will only get about 78.9% of your money back. Compared to other methods of gambling, this is an awful return, considering that games such as blackjack and roulette are upwards of 95%.

But, let’s not look at just one ticket, let’s look at all 57 scratch off lottery games that are currently being advertised. First of all, let’s look at the expected return of the ticket, grouped by the ticket’s price:

We can see that as the price of the ticket increases, the % return increases as well. The return is as low as 59.7% for a $1 ticket, and reaches as high as 80.5% return for a $30 ticket.

So does this mean that we should be buying the more expensive tickets, since they have a higher expected return? Absolutely not. With the more expensive tickets, we are losing a lower percentage of the amount we paid, but we are wagering a larger amount, leading us to a higher total expected loss. The chart below shows the expected loss in dollars grouped by the price of the ticket:

We are only expected to lose about $0.40 when buying a $1 ticket, and we are expected to lose nearly $6 when buying a $30 ticket.

The last metric that we will calculate is the overall probability of winning a prize from a ticket. We can do this by simply adding up all of the odds from our table. For example, if we had a 20% chance at winning $5 and a 10% chance at winning $15, we would have a 30% chance at winning either of those two prizes (20% + 10% = 30%).

After adding up all of the probabilities from the $10,000,000 Bankroll game that we were looking at, the overall probability of winning a prize seems to be 35.9%, which means that you have just over a 1 in 3 chance of winning a prize when buying this ticket.

Let’s take a look at the probability of a winning ticket, grouped by the price of the ticket:

We can see that the more expensive tickets have a higher chance at being a winning ticket, while the cheaper tickets have a worse chance. A $1 ticket has a 22% chance of winning any prize, while a $30 ticket has a 36% chance of winning any prize.

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You will almost never see a scratch off lottery ticket with a positive expected return, but I have seen one occasion where this has happened. If you want to learn more, check out my video on the story of Cash Winfall on YouTube.

Hopefully this article allows you to make more informed choices while gambling on scratch off lottery tickets, and if you’d like to take a look at the odds of winning prizes for any given ticket, you can go to CaLottery’s Website and scroll down and click on “See Odds for all Prize Levels for all Active Scratchers Games”.

If you enjoyed this article, feel free to check out some of the other analyses that have been written on MindingTheData.com, or follow us on Instagram @MindingTheData. Thanks for reading 🙂

Who wouldn’t want to know how to win scratch offs, right?

We all want to win the lottery!

Scratch off cards can be pretty frustrating. You think that you’re onto a winner and then you see the card is a loser.

So is there any way to increase your odds of winning scratch offs?

You’ll be glad to know that there are definitely things you can do to win.

These are pretty simple things too! So whether you are a gamble often or just buy scratch offs or lottery tickets to hopefully hit the jackpot or win the Powerball, once in a while, you can use these tips.

In this post, I’ll give you a few tips to increase your odds of winning on every scratch off ticket you buy.

Tips to Increase Your Chances of Winning Scratch Cards

Here are a few not so “secrets” you can use to win money on your next lottery scratch card.

1. Don’t purchase the cheapest scratchers

There are so many scratch cards out there nowadays that it can be pretty confusing to know which ones to buy. You sort of feel overwhelmed by all of the choices!

There are so many different designs, prices, prizes and brands available that it can be hard to decide which ones to purchase.

Thankfully, there’s a really easy tip you can use to make sure you purchase the right ones:

Don’t buy the cheapest scratch cards.

It can be tempting to purchase the most affordable ones; after all, you can get more of them for your money.

But these cards are cheap for a reason – the prize pool is lower.

You’d be better off purchasing just a few of the more expensive cards, rather than lots of the cheap ones. It’s quality over quantity basically.

2. Buy them in bulk

While the expensive cards are better, buying in bulk is still a good idea because it increases your chances of winning.

A lot of people swear by purchasing scratch cards in bulk. Consider purchasing a few scratch cards from the same game in a single trip to the shop, rather than just buying one scratch card.

Your odds of winning may increase if you purchase in bulk. It’s like with the lottery; the more entries you have, the more chances you have to win.

If you get a bunch of scratch cards in one purchase, then the chance of hitting one of those winning scratch cards may be higher.

This is a pretty easy way to up your chances of winning, so you may want to consider it. Don’t just buy any card in bulk though. Follow the rest of the tips in our article and combine those with buying in bulk to maximize your winnings.

Are Scratch Offs Worth It

I’d only recommend purchasing in bulk if your budget allows it – talking of which…

3. Make sure you set yourself a budget

I cannot recommend anything more highly when it comes to playing scratch cards than setting a budget.

It’s so important for your financial health.

Just as important as actually setting the budget though, is sticking with it. Be strict with your budget.

While this doesn’t increase your chances of winning, it does keep you from losing too much money.

Set yourself a weekly or monthly budget and make sure that you stick with it.

4. Check the odds before you buy

Like I said before, the amount of scratch cards out there nowadays is crazy. There are so many to choose from.

So how do you know which ones have the best odds?

As I also said earlier, purchasing the more expensive cards is a good option.

But another simple tip is to purchase the cards with the best odds, because, well, these give you the best chance of winning!

It’s not tough to find them either.

The odds are actually printed on the back of every ticket!

Really. You can even ask the cashier at the store to tell you what the odds are on the back of the tickets before you buy them. Choose the games that have better odds, and you’ll increase your chances of winning.

5. Check your state’s website

The last thing you’d want to do is purchase a ton of cards for a game only to learn that the biggest prizes have already been claimed.

It’s completely legal to sell tickets for a scratch off game after all the top prizes have already been claimed.

That’s why I’d highly recommend checking to see if a game has had any prizes claimed before you make a purchase.

Some stores will post a flyer with the information, although sometimes this is weeks out of date.

The best way to make sure you’re not wasting your time on a game is to check with your state’s lottery website.

For example, I went on the Oregon state lottery website and viewed a scratch off game on there to see what prizes were left.

As you can see in the photo above, this Casino Gold game had two top prizes remaining. It lists the odds of winning too, which is handy!

To find your state lottery’s website, just open up Google, enter the term “[state name] lottery website,” and hit search.

I just entered the term “Oregon state lottery website,” for example.

If all of the top prizes for a game have been claimed, consider switching to a different one.

6. Keep your losing tickets

Keeping your losing tickets can be a good idea. This is because sometimes the manufacturer will run a second chance game where they ask for losing tickets to pick a best loser, so to speak.

Are $20 Scratch Offs Worth It

Second chance drawings allow you to turn a non-winning ticket into another chance to win.

For example, at the time of writing, there were details of a second chance scratcher game on the Virginia state lottery website.

You could enter a non-winning ticket into the weekly eXTRA Chances drawing. The scratcher just had to have the eXTRA Chances logo on the front in order for it to be entered into the drawing. Prize themes change every month and, at the time, included gift cards, vacations, and concert tickets.

All you had to do was buy a scratcher with that logo and then if it was a losing ticket, you could either mail it to the Virginia Lottery or enter online with your non-winning ticket. Or you could use the app to enter the drawing.

Lots of states have second chance games like this.

So it’s worth checking with your state’s lottery website to see if there are any second chance games available.

Just as importantly though, keep hold of your losing tickets! You don’t have to spend any more cash, yet you get another chance to win.

7. Take in all of your losing tickets

Like I said above, you shouldn’t just throw out your losing cards and not only because of those second chance draws that I mentioned above.

No, another reason to not throw out a losing card is that it may not actually be a losing card.

There’s always a chance that you may have missed something on the ticket, which is why you should have your ticket officially checked.

You can have the computer at the retailer check the winnings to make sure that you haven’t missed anything. This way, you don’t throw away any winning cards!

It’s always worth doing, especially in games that have several different ways to win prizes because it can be easy to overlook winnings.

Get your ticket checked and you could win something!

8. Try the “Singleton” method

Next on the list is a tip that was used in the past by a lot of experienced scratch card players.

It’s called the “Singleton Method.”

This method involves looking at the numbers that are visible on a card before you purchase it. Basically, you analyze the card to see if you can pick up on any patterns that can indicate whether a scratch card has certain numbers, symbols, or combinations that could lead to you winning.

Now, this method isn’t really as useful as it once was because when the manufacturer’s caught on to the fact that people were analyzing the cards this way, a large number of them designed future cards to work against this method.

Still though, there may be a few manufacturers who have not yet taken steps to address this method. So you could still use it on the type of scratch cards that have numbers visible on the side.

It’s definitely an interesting theory. If you would like to learn more about how the singleton method works, then check out this guide from Casino.org.

9. Avoid package promotions

Another really useful tip I have is to avoid those “Mystery Packs” or other package promotions. This is because these promotional packages are often just a way for retailers to clear out their old stock. So they repackage older cards and then sell them in discounted ticket packages.

Are 20 Dollar Scratch Offs Worth It

At first glance, it can seem like you’re getting a good deal. Who wouldn’t want discounted scratch cards, right?

In reality though, these packages are comprised of games in which the top winnings have already been claimed. This leaves you with little, if any, opportunities to win prizes yourself. It’s always best to focus on active games where there are still top prizes left to be won. That way, you have a better chance of actually winning.

10. Play them like the slots

Okay, this tip will only work if you have a lot of time on your hands and don’t mind doing some detective work, so to speak.

You’ve probably seen those people who hang around the slots waiting for someone to lose before swooping in to take that slot machine.

There’s even a Friends episode about it where Phoebe gets lurked by an older lady who always swoops in and wins right after Phoebe leaves her seat after a losing streak.

There is some science behind this method. Although the house always wins, as they say, slots do have to pay out at some point. And if a slot machine hasn’t paid off for somebody in hours, it’s likely that it will pay off for the next person who comes along.

Surprisingly, you can apply this same method to scratch cards.

Long streaks of losses can mean that your odds are better if you swoop in with a well-timed purchase.

So, how does this work with scratch cards, you ask?

Well, it’s pretty simple. Just try talking to the cashier at the store to get some information on which games have paid out recently and which ones haven’t.

That way you can play the games that not many have won yet.

While this doesn’t guarantee that you will win, it may up your chances. After all, if someone earlier bought ten tickets and lost on them all, and you buy a few, there’s a better chance your tickets will win if those previous ones didn’t.

Similarly, if another game has had lots of winners, then you’ll know which ones have paid out already, and therefore, which ones to avoid.

So keep an eye on your competition.

Good Luck!

While there’s no magic formula for winning scratch cards, there are plenty of things you can do to improve your odds and make sure that you don’t miss out on any opportunities to win!

Remember though that you should always stick to your budget. You want to keep your finances intact.

Give our tips on how to win scratch offs a try and let us know in the comments section below whether you have any tips of your own!