Idaho launched a $50 Mega Cash that enters as the 11th-best scratch game in the country

The Idaho Lottery launched two scratch games on sale on Tuesday, September 8. According to the lottery's game listings they are Mega Cash at $50 and Chef's Kiss at $5, game numbers 1919 and 1918.

Mega Cash arrives at the top of the state table and near the top of the national one. It enters at 96.0 on our ValueScore™ scale, ahead of all 32 games on sale in Idaho and 11th of the roughly 2,880 games we score across the country.

The odds are good

Mega Cash pays back 76.3% of sales. That is above Idaho's own $50 average across three games, but it is 3.3 points below the national $50 average of 79.6%, and lower than High Life at 78.3% and $1,000,000 King at 77.3%, the two $50 tickets already on the shelf.

What lifts it is the hit rate. With odds of one in 2.71, it's better than any other game in Idaho and better than the national $50 median of 1 in 3.36. The prize table is dense near the bottom, with 4,582 prizes of $500 at odds of 1 in 119, and it is intact because nothing has been claimed.

A $1 million top prize at 1 in 271,913 is short for a seven-figure prize. The median top prize of $1 million or more in the country is 1 in 2,010,000, so this one is about seven times easier to reach, and that is the reason a $50 ticket with a middling payout still scores 96.

High Life, the $50 game from earlier in the year, is second in Idaho at 90.6 with 31.5% of its run sold. $1,000,000 King is 91% sold and has fallen to 59.6, which is what happens to a game late in its life regardless of how it started.

The $5 game is ordinary for its price

Chef's Kiss pays 70.1%, about a point and a half above Idaho's $5 average of 68.6% and eight tenths above the national $5 figure of 69.3%. It wins on one ticket in 3.39 and launched with two $50,000 top prizes, four prizes of $1,000, and 264 of $500. It rates 75.6, fifth in the state.

Both games replace tickets that are nearly finished. Mountains of Cashword, a $5 game from July, is down to one top prize and rates 54.1, and $1,000,000 King has one $1 million prize left at 91% sold. Idaho refreshes a small shelf often, and the two new games are the seventh and eighth to launch there since July 28.

Idaho's 32 active games average 69.4% payout and 54.8 on our scale, a small shelf by national standards. The state's ladder runs from 67.9% at $1 to 77.3% at $50, so the jump to the premium tier buys about nine points here. Current Idaho rankings update daily.

Sources

Idaho Lottery: Scratch Games