ScratchCheck Blog
Analysis, strategy, and stories from the editorial team.
Latest articles
Texas added three new scratch-offs, led by a $10 Mega Loteria with 14 top prizes
Texas put three scratch-offs on sale this week. The headliner is a new Limited Edition Mega Loteria, the 11th Loteria game on sale and a near twin of two older $10 tickets that have almost no top prizes left.
by Jessie Jurado
A Pittsfield man claimed the last $1 million on Massachusetts' $1,000,000 Bonus Wins
Kenneth Dougherty of Pittsfield claimed the third and last $1 million prize on the Massachusetts $1,000,000 Bonus Wins scratch ticket. The $5 game is still selling, with no top prize left in it.
by Jessie Jurado
$5 million prize claimed from an old Massachusetts scratch-off
A $5 million ticket sold at Dairy Fine in Norwood came from a Massachusetts 100X Cashword printing that is no longer sold. The same game name is still on shelves in a newer printing with one top prize left.
by Jessie Jurado
A $5 scratch-off returns 77.8% in Massachusetts and 60.9% in New Mexico
Buying the same price of scratch-off in a different state changes what comes back by as much as 22 points. Massachusetts leads at $5, $10, and $20, and the bottom of each list is a different state.
by Jessie Jurado
A second UK player has hit Powerball's £1 million prize
A UK ticket matched all five white balls in Monday's Powerball drawing, the second British player to win the game's £1 million prize. At current exchange rates it is worth about $1.34 million, with no tax taken.
by Jessie Jurado
Florida launched five scratch-offs at once, and each one debuts at the top of its price point
Florida put five scratch-offs on sale this week, from $1 to $30. Each debuts as the top-rated game at its price, led by a $30 ticket with two $15 million prizes.
by Jessie Jurado
A visit to Kwik Stop in Athens resulted in a $4 million prize on Georgia's 200X The Money
A $4 million top prize on Georgia's $25 200X The Money was claimed Monday by a player who bought the ticket at an Athens convenience store. It appears to have been the game's last top prize.
by Jessie Jurado
How often is the Powerball jackpot actually won?
Across 75 completed jackpot runs since 2015, Powerball is won once every 18.5 drawings on average. Runs keep getting longer, the longest went 47 drawings, and only eight reached $1 billion.
by Jessie Jurado
California launches 3 new scratch-offs and the $40 one has 40 $1 million prizes
California put three new Scratchers on sale this week, led by a $40 game with 40 top prizes of $1 million. On all three, the most common win is a free ticket, which is why the cash odds run well behind the advertised ones.
by Jessie Jurado
A 7-Eleven in Pennsylvania sold a $3 million top prize winning scratch-off
A 7-Eleven in South Park Township, Allegheny County, sold a $3 million top-prize ticket on The Hunt for $3,000,000, a $30 Pennsylvania scratch-off. The winner has not been named.
by Jessie Jurado
A Speedway clerk asked a Michigan man if he wanted a Ruby 7s too. He said "why not?" and won $1 million
A 62-year-old Oakland County man added a Ruby 7s ticket when the clerk at a Rochester Speedway asked if he wanted one. It paid $1 million, and he took about $693,000 in cash.
by Jessie Jurado
How long does it take to get your money if you win Mega Millions?
Mega Millions pays small prizes instantly and a jackpot about two weeks after you claim it. The part that takes real time is the winner deciding to come forward, which has taken anywhere from a month to nine months.
by Jessie Jurado
Maryland launched four scratch-offs at once, and the $30 one debuts at the top of the state
Maryland put four scratch-offs on sale at once on September 18. The $30 game debuts as the best-rated ticket in the state, and none of the four has a top prize over $50,000.
by Jessie Jurado
Massachusetts man wins $20,000 a month for 10 years on $10 scratch-off
Vrushab Jadhav of Worcester won the first grand prize on the Massachusetts Decade of Dollars ticket and took $1.56 million in cash over $20,000 a month for a decade. The math behind that choice is closer than it looks.
by Jessie Jurado
Scratch-offs with 10X and 100X in the name win more often, but do not pay back more
Tickets named 10X, 50X, or 100X win more often than ordinary games at the same price. They return the same share of sales, so the multiplier changes the texture of the game rather than its generosity.
by Jessie Jurado
A Leominster woman won $500,000 on a $50 Massachusetts scratch-off ticket
Angela Tarr of Leominster won the $500,000 top prize on the Massachusetts $500,000 Frenzy scratch ticket and took $355,000 in cash. The $50 game has 35 top prizes left, and its smallest prize is $100.
by Jessie Jurado
The first $2 million prize has been claimed on Missouri’s $2,000,000 Bankroll scratch-off
A Missouri player won the first $2 million top prize on the $20 $2,000,000 Bankroll Scratchers game with a ticket from a Warrensburg Casey's. One $2 million prize is left, and most of the game is still unsold.
by Jessie Jurado
What are the odds of winning a scratch-off top prize? For most games, worse than 1 in 500,000
The odds printed on a scratch-off are for any prize. The odds of the top prize are buried in the fine print, and across 1,822 US games the typical answer is somewhere between 1 in 300,000 and 1 in 850,000.
by Phil Nageotte
Circle K assistant manager charged after deputies say she cashed $6,600 in lottery tickets
A Palm Coast Circle K assistant manager is charged with grand theft after deputies say she cashed 10 lottery tickets a coworker printed by accident and left behind the counter. She denies knowing where the tickets came from.
by Jessie Jurado
A trust claims Ohio's Millionaire for Life jackpot as $18 million cash option
The Lee-Raymond Passive Trust claimed the September 8 Millionaire for Life jackpot from a ticket sold in Maple Heights, Ohio, and took the $18 million cash option. Ohio law keeps the names behind a trust claim confidential.
by Jessie Jurado
His wife had just suffered a heart attack. Then a pharmacy stop led to a $1 million win
Tony Corso, 65, stopped at a Walmart pharmacy for his wife's medication after her heart attack and spent $20 on Powerball on the way out. One ticket matched five white balls for $1 million.
by Jessie Jurado
Most states sell $5, $10 and $20 scratch-offs. After that, the map changes fast
Four ticket prices are near universal across American lotteries. Above $20 the menus split apart, with 26 states selling a $50 ticket, two selling $100, and four stopping at $20 entirely.
by Phil Nageotte
Arkansas woman accused of stealing 64 lottery tickets from store that fired her
A 22-year-old Jonesboro woman faces two Class D felony charges after police say she played 64 lottery tickets taken from the store that fired her. The affidavit says she reported winning $150 on tickets with a face value of $1,280.
by Jessie Jurado
Hinesville, Georgia produces its second $3 million scratch-off winner in 60 days, this time on a game that launched in 2018
A Liberty County player hit a $3 million top prize on a $20 Georgia scratch-off that has been on sale since 2018. It is the second $3 million scratch-off win in Hinesville in 60 days, and the first one paid out half as much.
by Jessie Jurado
Maine's anonymous $1.35 billion lottery winner drops lawsuit that threatened to reveal his identity
The winner of a $1.35 billion Mega Millions jackpot sued his former partner to protect his anonymity. After a federal appeals court ruled he would have to be named at trial, he moved to drop the case.
by Jessie Jurado
Two $1 scratch-offs in America carry a million-dollar top prize
A million-dollar top prize on a $1 ticket exists, barely. Two games in the country carry one, four more at $2, and nearly all of them pay the money out over a decade or a lifetime rather than at once.
by Jessie Jurado
Louisiana launched 4 new Bucks scratch-offs
Louisiana put four Bucks scratch-offs on sale September 13 and 14. Jumbo Bucks and Giant Bucks rate near the top of the state, but they pay back 63.9% and 62.5%, on a shelf with one of the lowest average payouts in the country.
by Jessie Jurado
A teenager apprentice electrician checked his ticket three times before believing he had won $4.2 million
A 19-year-old apprentice electrician from Riverdale won the $4.2 million Multi-Match jackpot on August 31 and checked the numbers three times before he believed it. He plans to buy his family a house.
by Jessie Jurado
Scratch-offs with $1 million top prizes actually pay back more on average
The common assumption is that a headline top prize is funded by squeezing the small prizes. Across every price point we tested, games with a $1 million top prize pay more and win more often than games without one.
by Phil Nageotte
Georgia added four new scratch-offs, and the best one costs $5
Georgia put four scratch-offs on sale September 15. The Big $5 Ticket rates highest and wins on one ticket in 3.33, but about half of its prizes are $5, and all four join a shelf of 200 games that is 81% sold on average.
by Jessie Jurado
A Georgia player won $1 million and an Ohio player $2 million on Monday's Powerball drawing
Two Powerball tickets matched all five white balls in the September 14 drawing. The one sold in Newnan, Georgia, won $1 million, and the one sold in Powell, Ohio, won $2 million with Power Play. A Medina, Ohio, ticket added $100,000.
by Jessie Jurado
A South Carolina store employee is accused of taking 2,229 scratch-off tickets without paying
SLED has charged a Horry County woman accused of taking 2,229 South Carolina Education Lottery scratch-off tickets from the Conway convenience store where she worked. The warrant puts the prizes on those tickets at $8,691.
by Jessie Jurado
Why an old scratch-off can look just as good on paper while being much worse to buy
The payout percentage printed into a scratch-off is fixed at the press and holds within a point for the life of the game. What changes is how much of the prize pool is still in the tickets you can buy.
by Phil Nageotte
$1.04 Billion Illinois Powerball winner claims prize anonymously after 34 days
The Illinois winner of the $1.04 billion Powerball jackpot has claimed the prize, 34 days after the drawing, and taken the lump sum. The winner stayed anonymous and said the ticket was a single $2 Quick Pick.
by Jessie Jurado
The first Powerball Xs & Os drawing results
No one hit the jackpot in the first Powerball Xs & Os drawing, and the prizes below it came in far under the advertised amounts. Match 7 paid $500 instead of $20,000 after more tickets won than the odds predicted.
by Jessie Jurado
Illinois' $1.04 billion Powerball winner still hasn’t been announced, and the cash option deadline is approaching
A month after one Illinois ticket won the $1.04 billion Powerball jackpot, no claim has been announced. Illinois rules give the winner until October 11 to take the $450.5 million cash option, and until August 12, 2027 to claim at all.
by Jessie Jurado
North Carolina woman wins $519,318 on a $5 ticket
Christine Brown of Concord won $519,318 on a $5 Fast Play ticket, half of a jackpot near $1.04 million. North Carolina pays Fast Play jackpots by ticket price, and the half she did not collect stayed in the pot for the next winner.
by Jessie Jurado
Powerball paid 373 second prizes of $1 million or more since January 2025. Here is where they were sold
Since January 2025 Powerball has paid 373 Match 5 prizes of $1 million or $2 million. California produced a winner in 38 drawings, and nearly half of all drawings produced none.
by Jessie Jurado
Your scratch-off looks like a winner but scanned as a loser. Here's what's going on
Near-miss designs, misread symbols and multiplier confusion make losing tickets look like winners. What to check, and what to do if you still think the scan is wrong.
by Jessie Jurado
Pennsylvania's lottery kept its $1 billion streak alive for programs, Mega Millions sales dropped while Powerball sales nearly rose 2x
The Pennsylvania Lottery cleared $1 billion for older residents for a 15th straight year, by $6.9 million. Its own statement shows why the margin was thin: sales rose, but a 2025 law let it pay players more, and our data shows exactly when new games started paying out higher.
by Jessie Jurado
The average scratch-off game lasts about 14 months
The median US scratch-off ran 427 days from launch to its last day. A $1 ticket gets 360 days and a $50 ticket 772, and one state clears its shelf in half a year.
by Phil Nageotte
Ohio’s best-rated scratch-off just paid a Berea man $1 million
A Berea man won the $1 million top prize on Ohio Millionaire Blowout and took $500,000 in cash. The $50 game still holds 54 top prizes, more than any other scratch-off in the country.
by Jessie Jurado
Pennsylvania launched 5 new scratch-offs, and two of them went straight to the top of the state
Pennsylvania put five scratch-offs on sale September 12. Game Show Experience opens at 95.4 and Candy-Coated Ca$h at 87.7, taking the top two spots on a shelf of 71 games.
by Jessie Jurado
Massachusetts $25 million scratch-off winner uses a trust to stay anonymous
Carrow Road Trust claimed a $25 million Massachusetts scratch ticket prize and took $16,250,000 in cash. Massachusetts publishes winners' names, so the trust is what kept the actual winner off the record.
by Jessie Jurado
59% of retired scratch-off games ended with a top prize still unclaimed
Of 2,130 retired US scratch-off games, 1,257 ended with at least one top prize never claimed. In 115 of them the unclaimed prize was $1 million or more.
by Jessie Jurado
After winning $26.75 million, Texas lottery winner has two things in mind: steak and boots
A Lake Jackson resident claimed a $26.75 million Lotto Texas jackpot and walked away with $14,303,717.61 before tax. That is a better conversion than Powerball or Mega Millions currently offer.
by Jessie Jurado
Kentucky launched 5 new scratch-offs for September 2026
Kentucky put five scratch-offs on sale September 10. The highest-rated of them, Maximum Money Blowout, has no grand prize at all: three prize levels, a $2,000 ceiling, and a $100 floor.
by Jessie Jurado
A Ridgeland player won $2 million on 200X, and the last top prize has eight weeks to be found
A Ridgeland player claimed the fifth of six $2 million prizes on South Carolina 200X. The game is 89.4% sold and comes off shelves November 4, which gives the final top prize about eight weeks to be found.
by Jessie Jurado