ScratchCheck Blog
Analysis, strategy, and stories from the editorial team.
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Does Anybody Ever Win Big on Scratch Cards?
Yes. Real people win millions on scratch cards, and the lotteries publish their names, their stores, and their prizes. These aren't urban legends. A Massachusetts woman won $25 million on a single ticket in 2023. A Florida man won $25 million in 2025 and walked away with a $16 million lump sum. The wins are real, documented, and life-changing. They're also rare, and understanding both halves of that sentence is the key to thinking about scratch cards clearly...
by Jessie Jurado
This Week's New Scratch-Off Launches in Illinois, Minnesota, and Texas
Three states rolled out new scratch-offs this week, with strong launches in Illinois, Minnesota, and Texas. A few of them open near the top of their state catalogs. Here's the full rundown across all eight new games, organized by state.
by Jessie Jurado
What's the Trick to Winning Scratch-Offs?
While you can't change your odds of winning, you can absolutely make smarter buying decisions that improve how much you get back over time and how often you win something. The difference between an informed player and a random one is real. It's just not magic. Here's what actually works and...
by Phil Nageotte
Should You Buy the $5, $10, $20, or $30 Scratch-Off?
If you're standing at the counter deciding between a $5, $10, or $20 scratch-off, the data points to a clear answer: the $10 ticket is the value sweet spot in most states. Moving from $5 to $10 buys you a meaningful jump in payout rate and tighter odds. Moving from $10 to $20 buys you much less. The biggest improvement happens at the first step up, and it mostly flattens after that...
by Phil Nageotte
What Scratch Cards Are the Best to Buy?
The honest answer is that "best" depends on what you're after and which state you're in, because the best scratch card is different in Texas than in Massachusetts, and it changes as games launch and prizes get claimed. But there's a reliable framework for finding the best card available to you at any given moment, and it comes down to three numbers. Get those three right and you'll consistently buy better cards than the player next to you grabbing whatever looks shiny...
by Jessie Jurado
Do People Actually Win Second-Chance Lottery Drawings?
Every state that runs a second-chance program posts real winners with real prizes, and the odds are often better than the original game because so few players bother entering. The skepticism is understandable. Submitting losing tickets into a...
by Phil Nageotte
How Many Scratch-Off Tickets Are in a Roll?
The number of tickets in a roll depends entirely on the ticket price, and the pattern is more deliberate than most people realize. A roll of $1 scratch-offs might hold 300 tickets while a roll of $30 tickets holds 50. The number changes, but the total dollar value of a roll stays remarkably consistent, usually landing somewhere between $300 and $1,500. That consistency isn't an accident. It's how lotteries keep their retail logistics manageable...
by Jessie Jurado
3 New New Jersey Lottery Scratch-Offs Launched This Week
New Jersey added three new scratch-offs between May 26 and May 27, 2026, covering the $3, $5, and $10 price tiers. One note before the breakdown: all three games show odds marked as estimated rather than official, since the New Jersey Lottery does not publish overall odds for its scratch-off games. The figures below reflect ScratchCheck's best estimates based on available prize table data...
by Jessie Jurado
How Much Money Do You Actually Lose Playing Powerball and Mega Millions?
Right now, for every dollar you spend on a Powerball ticket, you get back about $0.28 in expected value. For every dollar on Mega Millions, about $0.25. That means you're losing roughly $0.72 and $0.75 per dollar respectively. Those numbers are calculated from the current jackpots of $154 million for Powerball and $331 million for Mega Millions, and they update with every drawing. Here's exactly how the math works and what it looks like across different jackpot sizes...
by Phil Nageotte
Oklahoma Lottery Launched 5 New Scratch-Offs on May 21
Oklahoma launched five new scratch-offs on May 21, 2026, covering every tier from $1 to $20. The group opens with two strong base structures at the premium end and includes Frogger making its second state appearance after launching in Georgia and Florida this month. Here's the full breakdown...
by Jessie Jurado
The Scratch-Offs With the Most Unclaimed Top Prizes Right Now
Most players pick scratch-offs by price, design, or habit. The players who consistently get better value do one extra thing: they check how many top prizes are still available before they buy. The Top Prizes Remaining page on ScratchCheck ranks every active game across all US states by how many top-tier prizes are still unclaimed, updated from official lottery sources. Right now there are 2,893 active games with prizes still on the table. Here's how to use the page and what the current data shows across each prize tier...
by Phil Nageotte
How Much Do You Actually Take Home From a Lottery Jackpot?
The advertised jackpot is not what you take home. It's not even close. Between the lump sum discount, federal withholding, and state taxes, for example, a $131 million Powerball jackpot can turn into $33 million in your bank account depending on where you live. Understanding the gap between the headline number and the real number is one of the more useful things you can know before you start mentally spending a jackpot you haven't won yet...
by Phil Nageotte
Massachusetts Scratch-Offs: Best Bets for May 2026
Massachusetts has the highest per-capita scratch-off spending of any state in the country and consistently runs one of the best-structured catalogs nationally. May 2026 is no exception. The current top of the Massachusetts rankings features a three-way tie at the top, an unusual spread game with 15,000+ prizes remaining, and payout rates that most states don't hit even at the $50 tier. Here's what's worth buying right now.
by Jessie Jurado
Scratch-Offs Are 70% of all Lottery Revenue. Here's Why
Scratch-offs are the bulk of all Lottery Revenue. It's not particularly close, and the gap has been widening for years. Most people assume Powerball and Mega Millions are the lottery's main product because they generate the biggest headlines and the largest individual prizes. But in terms of actual dollars spent, scratch-off tickets dominate every major state's lottery revenue, and by a margin that surprises most players when they see the numbers...
by Jessie Jurado
California Lottery Launches 5 New Lottery Scratchers on May 18
California launched five new Scratchers on May 18, 2026, covering every price tier from $1 to $20. The group includes a new LOTERÍA™ edition, a World Cup-timed soccer game, and one game with prize structure that looks completely different from anything else in the current California catalog. Here's the full breakdown...
by Jessie Jurado
Crossword Scratch-Offs vs. Number Matching: Which Type Wins More?
Scratch-off players tend to have strong preferences. Some always reach for a crossword game. Others never touch them, convinced that number-matching tickets are faster to scratch and more likely to win. Both camps have logic behind them. The actual data across 14 states tells a more nuanced story: crossword games win on overall odds at every price tier, but number-matching games return more money per dollar at the $10 and $20 tiers. The right answer depends on what you're optimizing for...
by Phil Nageotte
Florida Lottery Launches Four New Scratch-Offs on May 18: Mega 7s and Cash Stacks Stand Out
Florida launched four new scratch-offs on May 17, 2026, at price points of $2, $3, $5, and $20. All four are entering the market with full prize pools intact. Here's what each game looks like and how they compare to the existing Florida catalog...
by ScratchCheck Editorial Team
Most Scratch-Off Players Don't Know About This Number on the Back of the Ticket
Flip a scratch-off ticket over. There's a prize table, some fine print, and a number that looks like a fraction or a percentage. Most players never read it. The ones who do often aren't sure what it means. That number is the payout rate, and it's the most useful piece of information on the entire ticket...
by Phil Nageotte
Georgia Lottery Launches 4 New Scratch-Offs Today: GRANT Debuts at #1 in the State
Georgia added four new scratch-offs to its catalog today, May 19, 2026, spanning price points from $2 to $30. All four are launching with full prize pools intact. Here's what each game looks like and which one stands out...
by ScratchCheck Editorial Team
Does It Matter Whether You Buy the Lottery at the Counter or a Kiosk?
A lot of scratch-off players have a preference. Some always buy from the cashier, convinced the machine gets the leftover rolls nobody wants. Others prefer the kiosk specifically because the clerk can't influence which ticket they get. Both camps have theories. Most of the theories are wrong, but a few of the practical differences between kiosk and counter are real and worth knowing...
by Jessie Jurado
How Lottery Retailers Get Paid (And Why It Matters for You)
The gas station clerk who hands you a scratch-off ticket is not just ringing up a sale. They're earning a commission on that transaction, and possibly a bonus if your ticket turns out to be a winner. The retailer compensation structure in lottery systems is something most players never think about, but it directly explains a few behaviors you've probably noticed without knowing why...
by Jessie Jurado
The Scratch-Off With the Best Odds in America Right Now
Every scratch-off player has wondered which game actually gives them the best chance of winning. Not which has the biggest jackpot or the flashiest design. Which has the tightest odds of winning anything at all. The answer changes as games launch and close, but right now, the data is clear. And some of it is surprising...
by Phil Nageotte
What Happens to Lottery Money If Nobody Claims The Prize?
Between $1 billion and $2 billion in lottery prizes go unclaimed every year in the United States. That's not a rounding error. It's roughly 1% of all lottery revenue, which sounds small until you remember that Americans spend over $113 billion on lottery tickets annually. The money doesn't disappear. It goes somewhere specific, and where it goes depends...
by Jessie Jurado
How to Pick a Scratch-Off Ticket: What Actually Matters
Most people pick scratch-off tickets the way they pick a cereal at the grocery store: whatever looks good, whatever's at eye level, whatever's cheapest. That works fine if you don't care about the outcome. If you do care, there are a handful of things that actually affect how good a game is right now, and none of them are the ones most players look at...
by Phil Nageotte
The Best and Worst Florida Scratch-Offs
Florida has one of the most active scratch-off programs in the country and one of the shortest prize claim windows: 90 days from game end, the tightest deadline of any major state. The combination of a large, fast-moving catalog and a short clock makes knowing which games are worth your money more important here than almost anywhere else. Here's what the current Florida data shows across every price tier, and which games to avoid...
by Jessie Jurado
Best Texas Scratch-Offs Right Now: Ranked by Odds, Payout, and Prizes Remaining
Texas runs one of the largest and most diverse scratch-off catalogs in the country, with 50 active games spanning $3 to $100 and a Lotería lineup that goes deeper than any other state. The range creates a real selection problem. Two games at the same price point can have wildly different odds, payout rates, and remaining prize counts. Right now, the spread between the best and worst games in Texas is wider than most states. Here's where the value actually is...
by Jessie Jurado
Is It Better to Buy One $20 Scratch-Offs or Two $10 Scratch-Offs?
This is one of the most common questions scratch-off players actually think about at the counter. You have $20. Do you buy one ticket or two? The answer isn't the same in every state, and the two metrics you'd use to decide, payout rate and overall odds, don't always point in the same direction. Here's what the data actually shows across nine major states...
by Phil Nageotte
How to Spend $20 on California Scratch-Offs Right Now
California's scratch-off catalog is one of the most unusual in the country, and not just because of the size. The California Lottery uses a pari-mutuel prize structure for its top prizes, meaning the amounts shown on the ticket aren't fixed jackpots. They're estimates based on expected ticket sales. Your actual payout depends on how many tickets were sold when you win. That's different from every other major state and worth understanding before you pick a game...
by Jessie Jurado
Best Georgia Scratch-Off Tickets for a $20 Budget
Twenty dollars is the most versatile scratch-off budget in Georgia. It's exactly one premium ticket, two solid $10 tickets, or four $5 tickets, and the right choice isn't obvious until you look at what's actually in each game right now. Georgia's catalog is currently split between two distinct structures: spread games with enormous prize pools still intact, and top-heavy games that look strong on paper but have nearly exhausted their best prizes. Knowing which is which changes the decision entirely...
by Jessie Jurado
Scratch-Offs vs. Powerball: Which Is Actually Worth Your Money?
Scratch-offs and Powerball are both lottery products sold at the same counter, often by the same person, but they're structured very differently. The expected return per dollar, the experience of playing, the odds of winning anything at all, and the ceiling on what you can win are all substantially different between the two formats. If you play both, and you're deciding how to allocate a fixed lottery budget, the comparison is worth understanding precisely...
by Phil Nageotte
The Expected Cost of Playing Scratch-Offs Every Week for a Year
Most people who buy scratch-offs regularly think of it as a small, casual expense. A few dollars here and there. What they don't usually do is add it up. The expected annual cost of playing scratch-offs weekly is knowable with reasonable precision, and the figures are concrete enough to be worth seeing laid out plainly before you decide what your habit actually costs you...
by Phil Nageotte
Can You Remain Anonymous After Winning a Lottery Prize?
If you win a significant lottery prize, your first instinct might be to keep it quiet. That instinct is well-founded. Large lottery winners have been targeted for theft, fraud, and harassment after their names became public. Some have been murdered. The question of whether you can remain anonymous isn't just about personal preference. It has real safety implications for large winners, and the answer depends entirely on which state issued your ticket...
by Jessie Jurado
Do More Expensive Scratch-Offs Actually Give Better Odds?
More expensive scratch-off tickets consistently return a higher percentage of each dollar spent than cheaper ones. That's the reliable pattern. The overall odds figure printed on the ticket tells a more complicated story, and the two measures point in different directions often enough that it's worth understanding what each one actually means before you decide which ticket to reach for...
by Phil Nageotte
What Is a Second-Chance Lottery Drawing?
Most scratch-off players throw away their losing tickets without a second thought. In many states, that's leaving real money on the table. Second-chance drawings give non-winning tickets another shot at a prize, and the odds are significantly better than the original game because most players never bother entering. It's one of the least-used features in state lottery programs, and one of the most straightforward ways to get additional value from tickets you've already bought and lost on...
by Jessie Jurado
Most Common Powerball Numbers of All Time
Powerball has been running since April 1992, and across more than 3,700 drawings, certain numbers have appeared more frequently than others. Whether that information is useful for picking your next ticket is a separate question, and one worth answering honestly. But the frequency data itself is real, it's tracked, and it tells an interesting story about how the game has evolved over three decades...
by Jessie Jurado
How Scratch-Off Prize Pools Are Structured: Top-Heavy vs. Spread
Two $20 scratch-off tickets can have identical payout rates and still play completely differently. One might have a top prize of $2 million available to two players out of millions of tickets. The other might have a top prize of $100,000 spread across 20,000 winners. The same percentage of the prize pool returns to players in both cases. The experience of buying and playing them is nothing alike...
by Phil Nageotte
Indiana and Kansas Split the $143.4 Million Powerball Jackpot. 89 Players also won $1 million or more!
Two players are splitting the Powerball jackpot after Wednesday night's April 29, 2026 drawing. One winning ticket was sold in Indiana and one in Kansas. Each winner will take home an equal share of the $143.4 million prize. But the bigger story might be the whopping 89 second prize winners...
by Jessie Jurado
How Are Lottery Winnings Taxed?
Winning a scratch-off feels straightforward until you start calculating what you actually get to keep. The number on the ticket is not the number that lands in your bank account. Federal taxes come off first. State taxes follow, and the rate depends on where you live and where you bought the ticket. If the prize is large enough, you'll owe more than what gets withheld at payout. Understanding how the math works before you claim is worth doing, especially for anything over a few hundred dollars...
by Phil Nageotte
The $1 Scratch-Off Is Almost Never Worth It
The $1 scratch-off is the most visible ticket in the dispenser. It's at eye level, it's an impulse buy, and it feels like a low-stakes way to try your luck. For most people it's the first scratch-off they ever bought. Gas station clerks keep a stack of them next to the register. The lottery programs design them to be grabbed without thinking...
by Jessie Jurado
How Long Do You Have to Claim a Scratch-Off Prize?
Every year, millions of dollars in scratch-off prizes go unclaimed. Not because nobody won. Because the winners didn't claim in time. The deadlines vary significantly by state, the clock starts from a date that isn't printed on your ticket, and the consequences of missing it are absolute. There are no extensions, no appeals, and no exceptions once a deadline passes...
by Jessie Jurado
The Best and Worst Scratch-Off Odds in the Country Right Now
Scratch-off odds vary more than most players realize, and not just between price points. The state you're in makes a significant difference. A $10 ticket in Georgia can have better odds than a $20 ticket in New York. A $5 ticket in Illinois can have odds nearly as bad as a pull-tab game. The spread across the country right now is wide enough that it's worth knowing where you stand...
by Phil Nageotte
What's the Difference Between a Quick Pick and Generating Your Own Random Numbers?
If you play Powerball or Mega Millions, you've probably used a Quick Pick at some point. You hand the clerk your cash, the terminal spits out a set of numbers, and those are your numbers. It's fast, it's random, and roughly 70-80% of all lottery jackpot winners used Quick Pick rather than self-selected numbers. There's nothing wrong with it...
by Jessie Jurado
Do Scratch-Off Odds Change as Prizes Get Claimed?
This is one of the most common questions players have about scratch-offs, and the answer has two parts that seem to contradict each other. The printed odds on a ticket never change. The effective odds you're actually playing against...
by Phil Nageotte
Can You Buy Scratch-Off Tickets Online?
The short answer is yes, but it depends entirely on which state you're in and which type of online purchase you're talking about. There are two distinct systems operating in the US right now: official state lottery platforms that sell digital scratch-offs directly, and...
by Jessie Jurado
How Are Scratch-Off Tickets Made?
At some point almost everyone who plays scratch-offs wonders how the ticket actually works. The prize is printed under that gray coating before the ticket ever reaches a gas station. Nobody tampers with it in transit. The lottery doesn't know which specific ticket you'll pick out of the dispenser. So how does any of this hold together?
by Jessie Jurado
What a 75% Payout Rate Actually Means Over 100 Tickets
The payout rate on a scratch-off ticket is one of the most useful numbers nobody looks at. It sits in the fine print, rarely gets mentioned in lottery advertising, and would probably change how a lot of people buy tickets if they understood what it actually means in practice. So here's what it means in practice...
by Phil Nageotte
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...
by Jessie Jurado
The Best Scratch-Off Tickets in Massachusetts Right Now
Massachusetts has one of the more active scratch-off programs in the country, with 50+ games running at any given time and a state lottery that actually publishes odds data. That makes it possible to do what most players never bother doing: rank the games by value before spending a dollar....
by Jessie Jurado
70% of Lottery Tickets Are Sold at Convenience Stores - That's Not an Accident
Here's a number that should give every regular scratch-off buyer pause: roughly 70% of all US lottery tickets are sold at convenience stores, according to industry data cited by the Oxford University Press. That dominance didn't happen by accident, and understanding how it happened explains something important about why most players are making systematically worse decisions without realizing it...
by Phil Nageotte
Why people keep buying the same game at the same store (and why that logic is completely backwards)
Ask a regular scratch-off player where they buy their tickets and most will name a specific store. Ask them which game they buy and they'll usually name one or two. The same gas station on Route 9. The same $5 crossword they've been buying for eight months. They'll tell you the store feels lucky, or that the crossword hits more often there, or that they won $50 on it once and it's been their go-to ever since. None of that logic does anything for their odds...
by Jessie Jurado