Which states have the best scratch-offs?
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Scratch-off generosity varies more by state line than most players realize. Across the 38 US lotteries where we score at least ten active games, average payout percentage runs from as high as 77.8% in Massachusetts down to as low as 60.5% in New Mexico. On $100 of tickets that spread is worth about $17.
| Rank | State | Games scored | Average payout |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Massachusetts | 120 | 77.8% |
| 2 | Illinois | 56 | 74.4% |
| 3 | Georgia | 188 | 74.3% |
| 4 | Pennsylvania | 66 | 74.2% |
| 5 | Michigan | 108 | 72.5% |
| 6 | California | 46 | 72.4% |
| 7 | Florida | 84 | 72.2% |
| 8 | North Carolina | 85 | 72.2% |
| 9 | Maryland | 92 | 71.8% |
| 10 | Virginia | 68 | 71.1% |
| 11 | Indiana | 56 | 70.8% |
| 12 | South Carolina | 39 | 70.6% |
| 13 | Arkansas | 55 | 70.6% |
| 14 | Ohio | 64 | 70.6% |
| 15 | Kentucky | 48 | 70.6% |
| 16 | Texas | 78 | 70.3% |
| 17 | New Jersey | 64 | 70.1% |
| 18 | Rhode Island | 67 | 69.6% |
| 19 | Washington, D.C. | 20 | 69.5% |
| 20 | Arizona | 54 | 69.5% |
| 21 | West Virginia | 50 | 69.4% |
| 22 | Connecticut | 70 | 69.2% |
| 23 | Idaho | 31 | 69.1% |
| 24 | Washington | 59 | 68.9% |
| 25 | South Dakota | 32 | 68.2% |
| 26 | Minnesota | 40 | 68.2% |
| 27 | Delaware | 35 | 68.0% |
| 28 | Oklahoma | 44 | 67.9% |
| 29 | Oregon | 48 | 67.6% |
| 30 | New Hampshire | 79 | 67.4% |
| 31 | New York | 102 | 66.9% |
| 32 | Mississippi | 71 | 66.8% |
| 33 | Iowa | 68 | 65.8% |
| 34 | Wisconsin | 62 | 65.0% |
| 35 | Nebraska | 27 | 63.0% |
| 36 | Louisiana | 39 | 61.9% |
| 37 | Montana | 46 | 61.3% |
| 38 | New Mexico | 55 | 60.5% |
Massachusetts has led for years
The Massachusetts Lottery sells the most generous scratch tickets in the country and has done for a long time. Its 77.8% average sits nearly four points clear of second-place Illinois, and it manages that across 120 active games rather than on the back of one or two outliers. Massachusetts also sells more per head than any other state, which is the commercial argument for running thin margins on purpose.
Georgia is the interesting one just behind. It runs the deepest rack we track, 188 active games, and still averages 74.3%, which is hard to do at that scale because a big catalog usually carries more low-price filler.
The bottom of the table
New Mexico at 60.5%, Montana at 61.3%, and Louisiana at 61.9% sit well below the pack. Small-state economics explain part of it, since a smaller print run spreads fixed costs across fewer tickets, and the price mix explains the rest.
The middle of the table is tight
Between about 8th and 22nd the rankings are separated by fractions of a point. South Carolina, Arkansas, Ohio and Kentucky all sit at 70.6%, and North Carolina and Florida are tied at 72.2%.
Read the average with care
Payout climbs steeply with ticket price, so a lottery leaning on $1 and $2 games will look worse than one pushing $20 and $30 tickets even if both are equally fair at any given price. Louisiana is a fair example: its rack is heavy on cheap tickets, and its best game, Fire/Ice at $20, rates 98.4 and ranks fourth in the country.
Every state has good games and bad ones, and the spread inside a state is almost always wider than the spread between states. Our per-state pages rank them, and the national ValueScore™ rankings sort the whole country at once.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Which state has the best scratch-off payouts?
Massachusetts, at an average payout of 77.8% across 120 active games. Illinois follows at 74.4%, Georgia at 74.3%, and Pennsylvania at 74.2%. Massachusetts has led this measure every time we have run it.
Which state has the worst scratch-off payouts?
New Mexico, at 60.5% across 55 active games, followed by Montana at 61.3% and Louisiana at 61.9%. The gap between first and last is 17.3 percentage points, which works out to roughly $17 per $100 spent.
Does a state average tell me which ticket to buy?
Only loosely. A state that sells a lot of $20 and $30 tickets will average higher than one selling mostly $1 and $2 games, because payout rises with price. Within any state the individual game matters far more than the state average, which is why we score each game separately.
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.
