Mystery CrosswordCalifornia Scratch-Off Odds & Prizes Remaining
Mystery Crossword is one of the California Lottery's $10 games. Its ValueScore of 75/100 (Good) makes it first of the 10 active $10 games in California. On average it pays back about $0.79 per $1, $0.05 more than the median $10 game in California. 55% of its winning tickets pay $10 or less, no more than the ticket cost.
Should I Buy This Ticket?
- Top-prize odds have improved: 1 in 1.2M at launch, about 1 in 1.0M now. Tickets have sold faster than the $750,000 prizes have been claimed.
- Plenty of prizes remain in circulation across this game.
- Strong prize quality: a healthy share of the bigger top and mid-tier prizes are still unclaimed.
Current Prize Odds
ScratchCheck estimate · Updated November 7Prize Breakdown
| Prize | Odds | Total | Left | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $750,000 | 1 in 1,200,000 | 25 | 17 | 68% |
| $10,000 | 1 in 600,000 | 50 | 34 | 68% |
| $4,000 | 1 in 394,737 | 76 | 54 | 71% |
| $2,000 | 1 in 384,615 | 78 | 50 | 64% |
| $1,000 | 1 in 7,964 | 3,767 | 2,402 | 64% |
| $400 | 1 in 4,782 | 6,273 | 3,680 | 59% |
| $200 | 1 in 536 | 56,014 | 32,603 | 58% |
| $100 | 1 in 49 | 607,000 | 353,596 | 58% |
| $60 | 1 in 100 | 301,280 | 175,728 | 58% |
| $40 | 1 in 63 | 479,001 | 277,993 | 58% |
| $20 | 1 in 12 | 2,400,000 | 1,401,282 | 58% |
| $10 Free ticket | 1 in 6 | 4,800,000 | 2,838,563 | 59% |
Prize Pool Analysis
Ticket Statistics
Prize History
Top prizes left
Since September 22, when our records for it began, 6 $750,000 top prizes have been reported claimed, leaving 17. The most recent was on October 31.
| Date | What happened | Top prizes left |
|---|---|---|
| September 22 | Our records begin | 23 |
| October 7 | 1 claimed | 22 |
| October 17 | 1 claimed | 21 |
| October 21 | 1 claimed | 20 |
| October 25 | 2 claimed | 18 |
| October 31 | 1 claimed | 17 |
| November 7 | Latest count | 17 |
How fast it's selling
Over the last 4 weeks, about 4.2% of this game's prizes were reported claimed each week, about 4 times the average for California's $10 games (1.1% a week). By tickets sold, it is the estimated #1 best seller of the 48 California tickets we can rank, at about 1,300,000 tickets a week.
From ScratchCheck's daily record of the lottery's published prize counts. Dates are when a claim first appeared in those counts, and small prizes are often cashed days after purchase, so claims trail actual sales.
ValueScore™ Breakdown
Game Details
- State
- California
- Game Number
- 1743
- Ticket Price
- $10
- Start Date
- 8/24/2026
- Payout %
- 78.5%
- Data Source
- Official
- Last Updated
- 11/7/2026
Compare
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Frequently Asked Questions
Every $10 ticket in California
| Game | ValueScore | Odds | Payout | Top prize · left | Claimed per week |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mystery Crossword (this game) | 75 | 1 in 3.47 | 78.5% | $750K · 17 | 4.2% |
| Set For Life | 74 | 1 in 3.76 | 78.4% | $6M · 4 | 3.9% |
| Polar Payout | 70 | 1 in 3.61 | 74.0% | $1M · 4 | 5.1% |
| $1,000,000 Poker | 61 | 1 in 3.50 | 74.7% | $1M · 9 | 1.1% |
| Neon Jackpot | 57 | 1 in 3.42 | 74.2% | $1M · 5 | 1.7% |
| California Jackpot | 54 | 1 in 3.42 | 74.0% | $1M · 3 | 0.0% |
| California Color Pop | 46 | 1 in 3.50 | 74.5% | $1M · 1 | 0.4% |
| $1,000,000 Money Mania | 45 | 1 in 3.42 | 74.3% | $1M · 2 | 0.5% |
| Mystery Crossword (Game #1708) | 43 | 1 in 3.47 | 78.1% | $750K · 5 | 0.3% |
| $50 or $100 | 24 | 1 in 8.13 | - | $100 · 112,885 | - |
Claimed per week: share of each game's printed prizes reported claimed per week over the last 4 weeks, from our daily records of the lottery's prize counts.