Illinois Budget & Goal Optimizer
Set your budget and pick a goal. Every active Illinois scratch-off gets re-ranked for Breakeven, Jackpot Chase, or Best EV.
Budget & Goal Optimizer
With $100, Maximum Money Blowout gives you 1.4× better breakeven than the average $20 Illinois game.
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1Maximum Money Blowout$201 in 9.6$2KBreakeven43.1%2$10,000,000 Bankroll$501 in 4.08$10MBreakeven42.4%3Millionaire Club$501 in 4.2$600KBreakeven41.5%4Amazing Bonus Blowout$101 in 9.49$500Breakeven40.8%5Blowout X$301 in 6.91$3KBreakeven36.9%6$2,000,000 Maximum Money$201 in 3.85$2MBreakeven32.0%7$2,000,000 Diamond Deluxe$201 in 3.55$2MBreakeven31.2%8100X Xtra$201 in 3.58$2MBreakeven29.5%9$1,000,000 Crossword 50X (Game #7639)$251 in 2.97$1MBreakeven29.0%10200X the Cash$301 in 3.18$3MBreakeven28.3%11Royal Riches$301 in 3.35$3MBreakeven28.1%12Double the Luck$201 in 3.71$3MBreakeven28.1%132000000Celebration_Logo$201 in 3.16$2MBreakeven27.2%14$2,000,000 Cashfall Logo$201 in 3.16$2MBreakeven26.7%151,000,000 Ca$h Cha$er$101 in 4.15$600KBreakeven25.1%
Frequently Asked Questions
What does the Budget & Goal Optimizer do?
The optimizer re-ranks every active Illinois scratch-off against a budget you set and a goal you pick. Games that cost more than your budget drop out. Remaining games are sorted by Breakeven (per-ticket probability of winning back at least the ticket cost), Jackpot Chase (expected top-prize dollars per $1 spent), or Best EV (published expected value per $1). Rankings update live as you move the slider.
How is the Breakeven probability calculated?
For each game we sum the per-ticket odds of every prize tier that pays at least the ticket price. When tier odds are published we use 1 ÷ oddsOfWinning summed across qualifying tiers. When odds are missing we fall back to qualifying prize counts divided by estimated total tickets (prizes × overall odds). The result is then scaled to your full budget using 1 - (1 - p)^n, where n is the number of tickets you can buy at that price, capped at 99%.
How does Jackpot Chase rank games?
Jackpot Chase sorts by expected top-prize dollars per $1 spent: (topPrize × P(topPrize)) ÷ ticketPrice. P(topPrize) uses remaining top prizes over remaining tickets when both are available; otherwise it falls back to total top prizes over total tickets. Games without any ticket-count data sort last. This rewards games where the top prize is large *relative* to ticket price and still realistically claimable.
What does Best EV mean?
EV is the published expected value of a ticket: the average dollar return per $1 spent across every prize tier. It is almost always less than $1 (state lotteries keep a cut), but higher-EV games return more of your money on average. Best EV ranks games by expected value per dollar. EV is the most rigorous single metric when full prize-tier data is published.
Why do some games show "~Est." or an "Estimated" badge?
Illinois publishes full prize data, so most values are official. A few games may still carry estimated odds when the state temporarily omits a tier; those are marked "~Est." on the odds figure.
Does my budget or goal get saved?
Yes. Your budget and goal are stored locally in your browser (no account, no login) so the next time you visit an optimizer page in Illinois or anywhere on ScratchCheck, your selections come back. Clear your site data or click Reset to restore the defaults ($100, Breakeven).