Montana Budget & Goal Optimizer
Set your budget and pick a goal. Every active Montana scratch-off gets re-ranked for Breakeven, Jackpot Chase, or Best EV.
Budget & Goal Optimizer
With $100, MONTANA $2,000,000 EXTREME CASH BLOWOUT! gives you 2.1× better breakeven than the average $20 Montana game.
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1MONTANA $2,000,000 EXTREME CASH BLOWOUT!$201 in 7.87$200Breakeven49.9%2$2,000,000 Extreme Cash Blowout!$201 in 7.87$200Breakeven49.7%3$1,000,000 Cash Blowout!$101 in 7.69$100Breakeven43.1%4Add It Up$21 in 4.52$12KBreakeven13.6%5Can-Am®$101 in 3.63$54KBreakeven13.3%6Tic-Tac Tripler$11 in 4.87$1KBreakeven13.0%7$50 Frenzy$21 in 4.11$5KBreakeven13.0%8Bingo Frenzy$21 in 4.62$12KBreakeven10.6%9Legendary Crossword$51 in 3.61$50KBreakeven10.4%10Bonus 10X Multiplier$21 in 4.17$12KBreakeven10.2%11Grab A Grand$11 in 4.88$1KBreakeven10.2%12Puzzle Payout Crossword$31 in 4.02$30KBreakeven10.0%13Donuts to Dollars Crossword$21 in 4.48$12KBreakeven10.0%14Electric Cash Crossword$101 in 3.38$150KBreakeven9.9%15Honey Money$11 in 4.88$2KBreakeven9.5%
Montana publishes official odds and prizes but not prize inventory (remaining/total counts), so jackpot-chase availability is limited. EV and breakeven use official odds.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does the Budget & Goal Optimizer do?
The optimizer re-ranks every active Montana 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.
Are Montana optimizer values estimated?
No. Montana's odds and expected values are official published figures. Montana simply doesn't publish prize inventory (remaining/total counts), so jackpot-chase availability metrics are limited, but EV and breakeven come from official odds.
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 Montana or anywhere on ScratchCheck, your selections come back. Clear your site data or click Reset to restore the defaults ($100, Breakeven).