California Just Launched 5 New Scratchers, and One Rates as the Fourth-Best in the Country

California released five new Scratchers on July 27, running from $2 up to $30. One of them lands near the top of our national rankings. Prices, top prizes, and the ValueScore™ for each are below, current as of the launch date for these games.

200X ($30)

200X is the reason this launch is worth paying attention to. The $30 ticket carries a $10,000,000 top prize and rates 97.4, which is the fourth-highest score of any active scratch-off we track anywhere in the country, behind only games in Washington D.C., Oklahoma, and South Dakota. Its payout percentage is 79.6% and its overall odds are 1 in 2.71, meaning better than one in three tickets wins something. Five top prizes are unclaimed.

Instant Prize Crossword ($20)

Instant Prize Crossword is a strong second, costing $20 and rating 88.8 with a 78.4% payout percentage and odds of 1 in 3.10. Its top prize is $2,000,000 and 15 of them are still available, the deepest stack of top prizes in this group.

$50 or $100 ($10)

$50 or $100 does exactly what the name says: every winning ticket pays either $50 or $100, and nothing else. It costs $10 and rates 66.5. The overall odds of 1 in 8.13 look poor next to the other four, though that number is doing something different here, since there are no small consolation prizes to inflate the win rate. About 275,000 top prizes remain, so hitting the $100 ceiling is realistic in a way it never is on a million-dollar game.

LOTERIA™ Extra! ($5)

LOTERIA™ Extra! is the $5 option, with a $100,000 top prize and 13 of them left. It rates 69.6 with a 71.4% payout percentage and odds of 1 in 3.51.

Set for Life ($2)

Set for Life is the cheapest of the five at $2, and it advertises the second-largest prize: $1,200,000, paid out over 25 years rather than in one lump. It rates 54.5 with a 67.1% payout percentage and odds of 1 in 4.44. Only two top prizes exist, so the headline number is a long way from a realistic outcome.

Which one to buy

200X is the pick by a wide margin, and a 97.4 is a score we rarely see on a game the week it launches. Instant Prize Crossword at 88.8 is the better option if $30 is more than you want to spend, and it has more top prizes on the board.

The other three sit in the middle or below. Their payout percentages run from 67.1% to 71.4%, against 79.6% for 200X, which is roughly nine cents more back on every dollar. All five just launched, so no top prizes have been claimed yet on any of them.

You can compare all five against the rest of the state on our California page or the California ValueScore rankings. For how 200X stacks up against the strongest games nationally, see our ValueScore rankings.