The best scratch-off odds in America are 1 in 2.28. The worst are 1 in 14.88

Overall odds are printed on the back of every scratch-off ticket, but the difference from one game to another is bigger than most players probably realize. Among active U.S. scratch-offs, the best odds are 1 in 2.28, while the worst are 1 in 14.88. The figures come from our database as of September 9, 2026.

All three are $30 puzzle games, which makes sense. Crossword, Cashword, and Bingo games tend to hand out lots of smaller prizes, so they usually have some of the best overall odds.

At the other end is a $10 South Carolina game with overall odds of 1 in 14.88. Two $10 North Carolina games are not far behind at 1 in 9.95. Games with only a small number of fixed prize amounts tend to have much worse odds because there are fewer small prizes filling out the prize pool.

Price barely narrows the odds

The average odds do not change much by ticket price. The best is 1 in 3.39 for $30 games, compared with 1 in 4.65 for $1 games. The spread within a single price is much wider. Among $10 games, overall odds range from 1 in 2.47 all the way to 1 in 14.88. The game you choose matters far more than the price.

The table also shows that odds do not steadily improve as tickets get more expensive. $3 games have better average odds than $5 and $10 games, while $30 games come out slightly ahead of $50 games. From $5 upward, the average is also worse than the median at every price. That happens because a relatively small number of games with unusually long odds pull the average higher.

What the number counts

About four in ten scratch-off prizes are break-even prizes. On a $1 game, roughly half of all winning tickets just return the dollar you spent, so odds of 1 in 4.65 can work out to something closer to 1 in 9 for a prize that actually pays back more than $1.

Overall odds also tell you nothing about how much money a game returns. A ticket can produce winners often while still paying back relatively little, which is why the games with the best odds are not necessarily the games with the best value. The game with the best overall odds in the country returns 75.0% of ticket sales as prizes, below the 79.6% average for a $50 game.

The published odds themselves do not change. They are set when the game is printed and remain the same throughout its run. What does change is the mix of prizes still left to be claimed, which is why remaining-prize odds are a separate number and can move as tickets are sold.

How we did this. Overall odds are taken from figures published by each state lottery for active U.S. games. The data covers 2,882 games, of which 2,881 report overall odds. Averages and medians are calculated by game and are not weighted by sales. The best and worst columns show the shortest and longest published odds at each ticket price. One Virginia promotional item priced at $0 was excluded from the price table. Figures are from our database as of September 9, 2026.