What are the odds of winning a scratch-off top prize? For most games, worse than 1 in 500,000
The 1 in 4 printed on the back of a scratch-off is the chance of winning any prize, even if that prize is just another ticket. The odds of winning the top prize are a completely different number, usually buried in the prize table on the lottery's website.
We pulled those odds for every active U.S. game in our database that publishes them. In most cases, the chance of winning the top prize is worse than 1 in 300,000. There are 1,822 such games in the data, based on figures from the first week of September 2026.
For 712 of those games the top prize is longer than 1 in 1,000,000. For 61 it is longer than 1 in 5,000,000. Only 280 come in under 1 in 100,000, and most of those are games where the "top prize" is $50 or $100. Georgia's $5 QUICK $50's pays its top prize once in 15 tickets because the top prize is $50.
Median top-prize odds at each price
| Price | Games | Median top-prize odds | Median top prize | Average spend per top-prize hit | Top prize as share of that spend |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $1 | 160 | 1 in 333,000 | $2,050 | $333,000 | 0.6% |
| $2 | 281 | 1 in 680,000 | $20,000 | $1,360,000 | 1.5% |
| $3 | 144 | 1 in 524,425 | $30,000 | $1,573,275 | 1.9% |
| $5 | 473 | 1 in 840,000 | $100,000 | $4,200,000 | 2.4% |
| $10 | 382 | 1 in 314,406 | $100,000 | $3,144,060 | 3.2% |
| $20 | 224 | 1 in 796,000 | $1,000,000 | $15,920,000 | 6.3% |
| $30 | 91 | 1 in 703,113 | $1,000,000 | $21,093,390 | 4.7% |
| $50 | 45 | 1 in 540,000 | $2,000,000 | $27,000,000 | 7.4% |
The odds do not climb neatly with price, because the top prize increases. A $5 game with a $100,000 top prize and a $20 game with a $1,000,000 top prize land in the same 1 in 800,000 range. The $10 tier looks easy at 1 in 314,406 only because many $10 games cap out at $100,000.
The fifth column multiplies the odds by the ticket price, which gives the typical amount players spend on a game for each top prize it pays. At the median, a $50 game takes about $27 million in sales per top prize and a $1 game about $333,000. The top prize is a much bigger slice of that spending on expensive tickets, though. A $50 game's median $2 million top prize is about 7% of the $27 million, against under 1% for a $1 game. That is a separate question from whether a ticket pays back more overall, covered in why published odds say little about payout.
The million-dollar games, best and worst
383 active US games carry a top prize of $1 million or more and publish odds for it. The median odds for these games is 1 in 2,010,000. These are the games at both ends.
| Game | State | Price | Top prize | Top-prize odds | Left / total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Millionaire Club | Illinois | $50 | $1,000,000 | 1 in 165,524 | 24 / 50 |
| Million Dollar Payday | Oklahoma | $30 | $1,000,000 | 1 in 203,120 | 2 / 3 |
| Best Chance To Be A Millionaire | Colorado | $50 | $1,000,000 | 1 in 240,000 | 2 / 8 |
| $25,000,000 MEGA MONEY | Massachusetts | $50 | $25,000,000 | 1 in 8,400,000 | 2 left |
| Gold Rush Legacy | Florida | $20 | $10,000,000 | 1 in 15,042,825 | 0 left |
| $25,000,000 Gold Rush Multiplier | Florida | $50 | $25,000,000 | 1 in 16,639,785 | 1 left |
| 500X The Cash | Florida | $50 | $25,000,000 | 1 in 21,920,355 | 1 left |
Illinois's Millionaire Club has the best odds in the country because it launched with 50 of them. The $1 million there is paid as $50,000 a year for 20 years via annuity or $600,000 cash (lump sum). Florida's Gold Rush Legacy has the third-longest odds in the country and no top prize left to win but it is still on sale.
The six longest shots are all in Florida, and all are $20 to $50 games with top prizes of $10 million to $25 million. Even the longest, 1 in 21,920,355, is about 13 times more likely than the Powerball jackpot at 1 in 292,201,338. The Mega Millions jackpot is 1 in 290,472,336.
A game's overall odds tell you how often any prize comes back. For most scratch-offs, that is somewhere between 1 in 3 and 1 in 5. The top prize is a much longer shot. On most games, the published odds are in the hundreds of thousands to one.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the odds of winning the top prize on a scratch-off?
It depends on the game, and the number is rarely printed on the front of the ticket. Across 1,822 US games that publish tier-by-tier odds, the median $5 game pays its top prize once in 840,000 tickets and the median $20 game once in 796,000. For games with a top prize of $1 million or more, the median is 1 in 2,010,000.
Which scratch-off has the best odds of winning $1 million?
Millionaire Club, a $50 Illinois game, at 1 in 165,524. It launched with 50 top prizes and 24 remain as of September 2, 2026. The prize is paid as $50,000 a year for 20 years or $600,000 cash. Million Dollar Payday, a $30 Oklahoma game, is next at 1 in 203,120 with two of three top prizes left.
Are scratch-off top prize odds better than Powerball?
Yes, by a lot. The hardest scratch-off top prize in the country is 1 in 21,920,355 on Florida’s 500X The Cash. The Powerball jackpot is 1 in 292,201,338, about 13 times longer. The typical million-dollar scratch-off is roughly 145 times easier to hit than the Powerball jackpot.
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.
