
ScratchCheck Editorial Team
The ScratchCheck Editorial Team is a group of data analysts and lottery researchers who track scratch-off odds, prize structures, and expected value across all 50 US states, Canadian provinces, and international markets. We analyze publicly released data from official lottery authorities to help players make more informed decisions; not to encourage play, but to ensure those who do play understand the math behind the ticket.
Articles by ScratchCheck Editorial Team(15)
What Is ValueScore? How ScratchCheck Ranks Scratch-Offs 0 to 100
ValueScore is a single 0-to-100 number that tells you how good a scratch-off is right now, combining four things players normally have to weigh by hand: expected value, prize quality, win frequency, and how much of the prize pool is left. Here is exactly what goes into it and how to read it...
June 15, 2026
Florida Lottery Launches Four New Scratch-Offs on May 18: Mega 7s and Cash Stacks Stand Out
Florida launched four new scratch-offs on May 17, 2026, at price points of $2, $3, $5, and $20. All four are entering the market with full prize pools intact. Here's what each game looks like and how they compare to the existing Florida catalog...
May 20, 2026
Georgia Lottery Launches 4 New Scratch-Offs Today: GRANT Debuts at #1 in the State
Georgia added four new scratch-offs to its catalog today, May 19, 2026, spanning price points from $2 to $30. All four are launching with full prize pools intact. Here's what each game looks like and which one stands out...
May 19, 2026
How to Tell If Your Scratch-Off Ticket Is Actually a Winner
Scratching a ticket and not being sure if you won is more common than it sounds. Prize tables can be confusing, symbols don't always match what you expect, and some games have multiple ways to win that aren't obvious...
March 19, 2026
Do scratch-off tickets expire?
The way how scratch-off tickets expiration works is different from what most people assume, which is why winning tickets go unclaimed every single year...
March 18, 2026
Should You Buy One $20 Ticket or Four $5 Tickets?
It's one of the most common decisions in scratch-off playing and most people make it on gut feeling. You've got $20 to spend. Do you put it all on one ticket, or spread it across four $5 tickets? The answer is...
March 16, 2026
Millionaire for Life: Here's What You Need to Know About the New $5 Lottery Game
A new national lottery draw game just launched last month, and it's worth knowing about. Millionaire for Life debuted on February 22, 2026 in 31 states, replacing Lucky for Life and Cash4Life in every participating jurisdiction. If you've been playing...
March 15, 2026
Why Cheap Scratch Tickets Are Usually a Bad Deal
The $1 rack by the register is hard to resist. It's a dollar. What's the worst that could happen? But if you look at what cheap scratch tickets actually deliver compared to their pricier counterparts, the math is pretty consistently bad...
March 14, 2026
Are $20 Scratch Tickets Actually Worth It?
Twenty dollars is the threshold where scratch-off tickets stop feeling like an impulse buy and start feeling like an actual decision. A $1 or $2 ticket is almost an afterthought. A $5 ticket is easy to justify. But $20 makes you pause ...
March 12, 2026
Best New Scratch-Off Tickets to Check Out in March 2026
New scratch-off games are worth paying attention to for a simple reason: fresh games have full prize pools. The longer a game has been on shelves, the more top prizes have already been claimed. If you're chasing a big win, a game that launched last week is almost always a better...
March 12, 2026
Best Scratch-Off Tickets to Buy in March 2026: Ranked by Odds and ValueScore
Every month we pull fresh data from official state lottery sources to flag the tickets actually worth your attention right now. Not games that looked good six months ago. Not generic advice. Just what's showing up at the top of the rankings today, filtered for games that...
March 11, 2026
Which States Have the Best Scratch-Off Odds in 2026? We Checked the Data
Not all scratch-off tickets are created equal, and not all states are either. The odds printed on the back of your ticket depend entirely on how each state lottery designs its games, and the differences between...
March 10, 2026