Phil Nageotte
Phil Nageotte is a writer covering scratch-off odds, expected value, prize data, and more. He joined ScratchCheck in 2026 after years of tracking lottery payouts in spreadsheets of his own.
Articles by Phil Nageotte(114)
Not every scratch-off with "Life" in its name actually pays for life
21 scratch-offs in eight states pay a top prize for life, from $100 a week to $1 million a year. Several tickets called Set for Life actually pay for a fixed 20 to 30 years.
October 18, 2026
Best $1 to $5 scratch-offs for winning odds and payout, ranked
There are 1,633 state lottery scratch-offs priced from $1 to $5. Here are the ones with the best odds, the best payouts, and the 50 that manage both, as of October 15, 2026.
October 15, 2026
The best $20 scratch-off in every state right now
Every state lottery that sells scratch-offs has a $20 game. Here is the top-rated one in each of 44 lotteries, led by South Carolina's Magnificent Jumbo Bucks.
October 15, 2026
What each scratch-off price point pays, from $1 to $50
Across 2,829 active US scratch-offs, the share of sales paid back as prizes rises at almost every step from $1 to $50. The cheapest tickets return the least.
October 14, 2026
Scratch-offs with fewer prize levels tend to have worse odds of winning
The median scratch-off has 10 or 11 prize levels. Adding more levels doesn't raise the payout, but games with very few levels win noticeably less often.
October 13, 2026
One in nine scratch-offs has a top prize below $1,000
Of 2,852 scratch-offs on sale, 307 have a top prize under $1,000. They pay back as much as other games at the same price, but the pricier ones win far less often.
October 12, 2026
A $1 scratch-off's top prize is usually 2,000 times the ticket price, at $50 it is 60,000 times
The median $1 scratch-off tops out at $2,000, 2,000 times its price. The median $50 game tops out at $3 million, 60,000 times its price. Top prizes grow faster than ticket prices.
October 11, 2026
Does a scratch-off's name tell you anything?
"Cash" is in 348 scratch-off names and "Money" in 194, but once price and state are taken into account, no common word in a game's name moves its payout by more than about a point.
October 11, 2026
Which Connecticut scratch-offs win the most, and how long you have to cash one
Best Chance To Be A Millionaire returns the largest share of sales in Connecticut, 81.1%, while the new $10 X The Money rates highest overall. Scratch tickets there expire 180 days after a game ends.
October 10, 2026
The odds of winning $1,000 or more on a scratch-off, from $1 tickets to $50
A $1 scratch-off has about a 1 in 545,000 chance of paying $1,000 or more. A $50 ticket has about a 1 in 2,300 chance. Even per $100 spent, the pricier tickets are far more likely to pay four figures.
October 10, 2026
Is the $5 Millionaire for Life a better deal than the old $2 Cash4Life?
Millionaire for Life costs $5 against Cash4Life's $2, but at cash value both return about 52 to 53 cents per dollar. The new game trades frequent small wins and per-dollar odds for a much bigger top prize.
October 9, 2026
$100,000 is the most common scratch-off top prize in America
Of 2,852 scratch-offs on sale, 302 top out at exactly $100,000, more than any other amount. $1 million is second at 252, and $500 is the top prize on 136 games.
October 9, 2026