Oregon launched 3 new scratch-offs, and one ranks as the 7th best in the country

The Oregon Lottery put three new scratch-offs on sale August 11, 2026, and one of them rates higher than all but six active games in the country. ValueScore™ figures, our 0 to 100 rating, are current as of this writing on August 17, 2026.

One Word Crossword ($20)

One Word Crossword rates 97.0, which puts it seventh among the over 3,000 active games we score in the United States. It pays back 72.1% of sales as prizes, its overall odds are 1 in 2.77, and the top prize is $125,000 with all three still unclaimed. About 3% of the print run has sold.

The 72.1% payout is ordinary for a $20 ticket, so the score is carried by the other pieces of the formula. Odds of 1 in 2.77 are close to the best hit rate in the country, and every prize above $500 is still sitting there: three at $125,000, four at $10,000, and twenty at $2,000. Of the 615 $500 prizes, 610 remain. Our ValueScore™ weighs prize size as well, and Oregon caps this game at $125,000 where other states hang a million dollars on a $20 ticket, so the 97.0 is earned on frequency and inventory.

24 Karat Gold ($5)

24 Karat Gold rates 69.8 with a 67.7% payout percentage and odds of 1 in 4.00. Both $40,000 top prizes are unclaimed, along with all eight $5,000 prizes and all eleven $1,000 prizes. Roughly 4% of the run has sold. It is a reasonable $5 ticket, and the gap to One Word Crossword comes mostly from the hit rate.

Ace in the Hole ($2)

Ace in the Hole rates 51.9, the weakest of the three. It pays back 63.4% of sales, its odds are 1 in 4.57, and it tops out at $9,000 with both prizes unclaimed. The prize table below that is thin: 509 prizes at $100 and 1,627 at $50. About 7% has sold, the fastest of the batch.

One thing worth watching is which of these moves fastest. Ace in the Hole has sold about 7% of its run in a week, roughly double the pace of the other two, and it is the weakest ticket of the three by our numbers. Cheap tickets always turn over faster because people buy several at a time, so this is normal, and it is also the reason the best game in a launch is often still sitting there weeks later with its top prizes intact.

In per-dollar terms the three return 72, 68, and 63 cents. On 24 Karat Gold we put the chance of at least getting your $5 back at about 25%. That spread follows the usual pattern, where the cheaper ticket returns less per dollar. Oregon's $2 and $5 games return 63 and 68 cents on the dollar, and the $20 returns 72. Current scores for every Oregon game are on our Oregon ValueScore™ rankings, and the full board is on the Oregon state page.

Sources

Oregon Lottery: Scratch-its game list and prize data