What the three-letter codes on Massachusetts scratch tickets mean
If you scratched a Massachusetts ticket, found a three-letter code like TYH or OHR, and went looking for what it means, the answer is that you will not find it in any official list. The Massachusetts Lottery does not publish a code table, and the codes people search for most are usually the ones that do not decode to anything.
Here is what the codes actually are. Instant tickets have carried a short alphabetic code in the play area for decades, a compressed way of writing the prize so a clerk could confirm a small win by eye. It mattered when terminals were unreliable or offline, and a store still needed to pay out a few dollars. Every list circulating online is player-compiled from tickets people have cashed, which is why they mostly cover small prizes and disagree at the edges.
| Code | Commonly reported as |
|---|---|
| TEN | $10 |
| OHN | $100 |
| FHN | $500 |
| TYH, OHR and similar | no published meaning |
Treat that table as more folklore rather than fact. It reflects what players report, not anything the Lottery stands behind, and the pattern players describe is that once a prize gets large the code stops spelling out an amount.
The rule that does matter is written down. Under the state lottery regulations at 961 CMR 2.00, a ticket is a valid instant winner only if the Lottery's online system says so, and instant tickets have to be validated through the barcode scan before they can be cashed. A code in the play area has no standing next to that. Scan it in the Massachusetts Lottery app, at a retailer, or at a claim center, and take the terminal's answer.
What no code will ever tell you
None of this reveals anything about an unscratched ticket. The numbers and barcodes on the back are inventory and security data, which we break down in what the codes on the back of a scratch-off mean, and no marking anywhere on a ticket identifies a winner before you play it.
What is worth checking before you buy is which Massachusetts games still have prizes left, since the state runs 115 active scratch-offs returning about 78% of sales on average. Those are ranked on our Massachusetts ValueScore™ page, and the ways to verify a ticket you already hold are in how to tell if your scratch-off is actually a winner.
Sources
Massachusetts State Lottery Commission: 961 CMR 2.00 rules and regulations
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Frequently Asked Questions
What does TYH mean on a Massachusetts scratch ticket?
Nothing you can look up. Codes like TYH and OHR are not in any published prize list, and the Massachusetts Lottery does not release a code table. Players widely report that larger prizes carry codes that do not spell out an amount, which is why searching for one usually turns up nothing useful.
What are the three-letter codes on scratch tickets for?
They are a leftover from manual verification. Before terminals could be relied on, a clerk could read a short code in the play area and confirm a small prize without scanning. Today the barcode does that job, and the letters are essentially vestigial.
Can a code tell me if my ticket is a winner before I scratch it?
No. Nothing printed on a scratch ticket reveals the prize in advance, and any code visible before you scratch is inventory or security data. Under Massachusetts rules, a ticket is a winner only if the lottery's online system says it is.
Jessie Jurado is a news writer who covers new scratch-off launches, state lottery guides, taxes on winnings, news, and much more. She joined ScratchCheck in 2026 and writes the site's state-by-state coverage.
