The Best Scratch-Off Tickets in Virginia Right Now

Virginia runs one of the larger scratch-off programs on the East Coast, with 50 active games at any given time spanning $1 to $50 tickets. The range creates a real selection problem: some of these games are genuinely well-structured, and some have odds or payout rates that should make you put the ticket back in the dispenser. Here's what the current data actually shows.

Rankings below are pulled from live Virginia Lottery data via ScratchCheck's Virginia scratch-off rankings, sorted by ValueScore, which factors in overall odds, prize payout rate, and remaining top prizes.

Best $50 Ticket: Set for Life

Set for Life sits at the top of the Virginia rankings right now with a ValueScore of 87.1, and it has something unusual going for it: an 87.2% prize payout rate, the highest of any game in Virginia's current active top 50. Overall odds of 1 in 3.7 are reasonable for the $50 tier, and two top prizes of $6 million remain unclaimed. If you're going to spend $50 on a scratch-off in Virginia, this is the one with the strongest underlying numbers.

The 87.2% payout figure is worth dwelling on. Most Virginia scratch-offs at the $10 and $5 level are running payout rates in the 68-74% range. Set for Life returns significantly more of each dollar played than the cheaper tickets do. That's not typical. Usually higher-priced games pay out at better rates, but the gap here is particularly wide.

Best $30 Ticket: In The Money

In The Money ranks second overall in Virginia with a ValueScore of 86.7, odds of 1 in 3.5, and an 81.4% payout rate. Two top prizes of $1 million are still available. It's the strongest $30 option in the current rankings by a meaningful margin over the next $30 game.

The $173,000,000 Extravaganza (rank 4, VS 80.8) is worth noting as a secondary $30 pick. It has the best overall odds in the entire $30 tier at 1 in 3.08, a $5 million top prize, and two remaining. The payout rate of 80.4% is slightly lower than In The Money but the odds advantage is real.

One more $30 game worth mentioning: WINNERS CLUB (rank 9) has the tightest odds of any $30 game at 1 in 2.95, and an 83.8% payout rate that leads the tier. But its ValueScore of 74 trails In The Money significantly because its top prize is smaller and only two remain. If you weight raw odds and payout rate more than prize size, Winners Club is the logical pick. If you want the best composite value, In The Money wins.

Best $20 Ticket: 50X The Money

50X The Money leads the $20 tier with a ValueScore of 79.4, the best overall odds at that price point at 1 in 3.03, an 83.1% payout rate, and two top prizes of $3 million remaining. It's the most straightforward pick in the $20 range.

Payday Tripler (rank 7, VS 78.2) is a reasonable alternative at $20 if 50X The Money isn't available, with odds of 1 in 3.44 and 81.1% payout with two top prizes left. Both are meaningfully better than the rest of the $20 field.

One strong warning about the $20 tier: avoid CASH BLAST (rank 19). It's priced at $20 but carries overall odds of 1 in 9.34, by far the worst odds of any $20 game in Virginia, and among the worst in the entire top 50. The top prize is $600 and most of the "prize" pool is tiny. At $20, you're paying premium price for lottery scratch-off odds that are worse than a $2 ticket at other games.

Best $10 Ticket: 20X The Money

20X THE MONEY (game #2377) ranks third overall in Virginia and leads the $10 tier with a ValueScore of 81.1. Overall odds of 1 in 3.65, a 74.9% payout rate, and four top prizes of $1 million remaining. That prize count matters. Four remaining top prizes is more than any other $10 game in the current Virginia rankings.

Note that there's a second game called "20X The Money" in the rankings (game #2310, rank 38, VS 44.1). It's an older version with no remaining prize data available. If you're buying 20X The Money specifically for the remaining top prizes, make sure you're getting game #2377, not the older #2310. The game numbers aren't printed on the ticket face in most cases, but the newer game should be in the more recently stocked dispensers.

One $10 game to actively skip: CASH BLOWOUT (rank 33) has odds of 1 in 9.35, the worst of any $10 game in Virginia and nearly identical to the terrible CASH BLAST at $20. The top "prize" is $500. At a $10 buy-in with those odds, you're getting a bad deal on every metric.

Best $5 Ticket: Cash Wheel

The $5 tier in Virginia is thinner than some other states, with payout rates generally sitting in the 68-70% range. Cash Wheel leads at rank 23 overall with a ValueScore of 61.2, overall odds of 1 in 5.02, and three top prizes of $100,000 remaining. The 69.9% payout rate is typical for Virginia $5 games but low compared to what you'd find at the same price point in states like Massachusetts.

Bonus Spin Crossword (rank 26, VS 59.6) is worth considering as an alternative specifically because it has four top prizes of $100,000 remaining, more unclaimed top prizes than any other $5 game currently active in Virginia. The payout rate is slightly lower at 69.1% but the intact prize pool gives it an edge if your goal is top-prize availability.

Cash in a Flash (rank 25) at $5 has only one top prize remaining. Pass on it.

The Virginia Payout Rate Problem

One pattern that stands out across Virginia's current game catalog: the cheaper tickets pay out at notably lower rates than the premium ones. The $5 and $10 games are clustered in the 68-75% payout range. The $20-$50 games are mostly in the 79-87% range. That's a 10-15 percentage point gap between what you get back per dollar on a $5 ticket vs. a $20 ticket.

This isn't unique to Virginia, but the spread is sharper here than in some other states. If you typically buy multiple $5 tickets, you'd get better statistical value buying one $10 or $20 ticket instead. The math runs against the cheap ticket approach in Virginia's current game mix.

Check Current Rankings Before You Buy

Prize pools shift as tickets get claimed. A game that has four top prizes remaining today can drop to one within days if a few winners come in from the same run. The Virginia scratch-off rankings on ScratchCheck update from official lottery data, so the standings reflect what's actually left rather than what was printed at launch.

For a broader look at which states have the best scratch-off odds overall, the best odds rankings across all states are worth a look if you're near a state line and have options.