Scratchers Strategy
I am sure most of you have played scratch off lottery tickets before, sometimes they are called 'scratchers.' They are lottery tickets that you scratch with a coin to reveal a prize (or not). With scratch-off lottery tickets, you win cash instantly! In most states, you can cash any prize up to $500-$600 at any location that sells lottery tickets. You'd be shocked at how often retailers steal tickets from players by telling them that their ticket isn't a winner. A few states have even gone so far as to set up an undercover team that specializes in catching these people. What they do is present retailers who players have complained about with 'marked' tickets and then have them arrested when the retailer comes in to claim the prize. Scratchers Here! If you have a winning ticket for which the prize-redemption period expires during the Governor's declared state of emergency, the Lottery will validate and pay the prize as long as you file your claim by mail or in person at a Customer Service Center no later than 30 days after Virginia's state of emergency order has been lifted.
Secrets of State Lottery Scratch-off Contracts
When most people think of advantage gambling, state lottery scratch-offs are the last thing that enters their minds.
Everyone’s heard of counting cards at blackjack. There are even several moviesabout it.
And poker has been shown to be a game of skill; just look at the repeat winners of major tournaments like the World Series of Poker and the World Poker Tour.
But most people still refer to the lottery as an “idiot tax”.
And scratch offs have a notoriously bad expected value (which you can think of as a gambling game’s return on investment).
To give you an example of how bad lottery tickets can be, most $1 scratch offs have an expected value of around 60%, meaning for every $1 you spend, you’re expected to get back just $0.60; a $0.40 loss.
Most penny slots have paybacks that are better than that.
And other gambling games, like blackjack, can approach 99% payback without any card counting at all.
I’m here to shed light on a new way of thinking about scratch-offs and show you how you can improve your odds. It won’t always be profitable.
But under the right circumstances, it can be. If you’re going to play regardless, you might as well maximize your chances of winning.
Here are my insights about how to win at scratch-offs. I’ve gained these insights by reading the contracts and procurement documents that state lottery organizations have with their ticket printers.
Combine these insights with sites that calculate a scratch-off ticket’s odds, and you’ll be playing like a sharp
Where Are Scratch-off Grand Prizes?
Grand prizes are not random.
I’m sure all of these insights will come as a surprise.
But this one is probably the biggest.
Surely the state wants to ensure a fair game.
How can it be fair if the biggest prizes of all aren’t even random?
Here’s an image of the procurement document that the Massachusett’s lottery used to elicit bids from ticket printers:
You’ll see that they require the grand prizes to be distributed evenly throughout the game.
Note that “distributed evenly throughout the game” is not random.
If the prizes were random, then they might all appear at the start of the game. Or they might all appear at the end of a game.
But the state doesn’t want that to happen. If all of the grand prizes were claimed at the start of the game, then people would stop playing the game because they would have no shot at the big money.
You can take advantage of this fact by figuring out how many tickets are in a “pool” where a grand prize should be. If there are 9,000,000 tickets and 3 grand prizes, then divide 9,000,000 by 3 to figure out that there must be 1 grand prize every 3,000,000 tickets.
Then, use the state’s lottery website to figure out how many tickets remain. Most states publish this information for each game.
In the example game just mentioned, if there were 7,000,000 tickets remaining and still 3 remaining grand prizes, then you know the first grand prize must be in the next 1,000,000 tickets. Your odds just improved from 1 in 3,000,000 to 1 in 1,000,000.
That may not seem like much, but it can mean the difference between negative and positive expected value.
Is There A Limit To The Number Of Big Winning Tickets In A Roll?
Here’s an image from documents filed as part of a Texas lawsuit against the state and the ticket printer:
In this contract that Texas has with IGT, there’s a clause that states that there can be no more than a certain number of $25-$50 winners per pack of tickets. There’s another clause that states there can be no more than one winner of $75 and higher per pack. (The “one” is redacted, but we can deduce that tit’s one by looking at the word following the redaction, which is “winner” rather than “winners”).
How can you use this to your advantage?
Buy only one ticket from a pack at a time and scratch it right there at the store.
If it happens to be a big winner, don’t buy any more tickets from that pack.
What Is The Minimum Payback for a Roll of Scratch-off Tickets?
This next image is from the request for a proposal from the New Mexico lottery association to ticket printers:
It shows that each pack of tickets has some guaranteed payout. The details of the guaranteed payout aren’t specified, but from other contracts and personal experience, I’ve found it to typically be about 50% of the price of a pack of tickets. If an entire roll of tickets costs $600, then the GLEP is usually about $300.
What this means for the advantage player is that you should not stop buying after a string of losers.
Since each roll of tickets is guaranteed to have a certain minimum payout, then every loser you see increases the chance that the remaining tickets are winners.
Conclusion
While none of the above insights will guarantee you will win, they are just a few of the things you can do for yourself if you want to know how to beat scratch-offs.
Combine these insights with some expected value calculations from the remaining prizes that get displayed on the state lottery websites and you’ll be doing way better than the average lotto player.
Good luck.
About the Author
Eric Ihli, a professional gambler/programmer, spent 10 years as a full-time professional gambler and 5 years as a software engineer. He now combines those two passions by writing software to discover and evaluate profitable gambling opportunities.
Disclaimer:
All of the information inside this report reflects my own personal opinion and my own personal experiences. I am in NO way guaranteeing any winnings, results, etc. and am not responsible for any losses that may occur as a result of you using this information and/or gambling irresponsibly. By reading on you agree to these terms.
Introduction to Winning Scratch Offs:
I am sure most of you have played scratch off lottery tickets before, sometimes they are called 'scratchers.'
They are lottery tickets that you scratch with a coin to reveal a prize (or not).
With scratch-off lottery tickets, you win cash instantly! In most states, you can cash any prize up to $500-$600 at any location that sells lottery tickets.
I have won scratch off games MANY times and over the years have developed quite a few tips that have helped me increase my winnings and have some very nice winnings as well, such as $500 winners occasionally and $50 - $100 winners all the time!
You can almost call my collection of tips a 'system' but it doesn't really beat the game or cheat in any way whatsoever. It just improves your odds of winning by a significant amount!
My strategy is this. It is VERY unlikely that you will win the TOP prize, because usually there are only about 8 or 10 available out of hundreds of millions of tickets that get printed.
With that said, when I play scratchers I am not aiming for the top prize (i.e $250,000 on a $5ticket). Of course winning the top prize would be great don't get me wrong ... but it's unlikely.
Ok, let's get started with tip #1...
Play New Games!
Scratch Off Secrets Revealed
The first tip and one of the most important ones that I will discuss, is the concept of playing 'new' games.
A 'new game' is a scratch off lottery game that is brand new and just came out recently. Most states and countries come out with new scratch off games monthly or a least quarterly. These are the ones you want to play, and this is CRUCIAL. Why? Because some scratch off games have been around for several months or even over a year ... Which means that many of the prizes have already been won and claimed for those games. Not only the TOP prizes (which can be pretty substantial amounts of money sometimes) but even the smaller prizes such as the $2 - $500 prizes can be mostly gone if a game is old.
It's not rocket science, but it makes perfect sense and you might not have thought about it before. The more all fresh and new the game... the more fully loaded with prizes it must be.
The new games are chock full of prizes! They have all the $10, $20, $25, $50, $100, $200, $250, $500, $1,000, $2,000 and $5,000 prizes unclaimed and you are much more likely to win one of these prizes on a newer game.
You can check the lotteries' website or ask the cashier which games just came out recently and other times you can tell which ones they are because they correspond to a certain holiday or month. Most state lottery web sites will tell you how many prizes a game has left, this way you can go to the store with useful knowledge on which games are worth playing and which to avoid.
Remember, we're not shooting for the TOP prizes ... But the $50's, $100's and $500 prizes are always great!
Lucky Numbers & The Best Performing ticket numbers 0, 6, 7, 8, 11, 12, 17, 18, second to last, last. I have won countless times on tickets with the above numbers.
What do I mean by numbers?
Every scratch off game session is a roll of tickets. Normally the whole roll adds up to $300 or $600 in the dollar or two range, much more now that we have $20 and $25 and soon higher.
That means in a roll of $2 scratch off tickets, there are 150 tickets -- which adds up to $300. If they're $5 scratchers, then there would only be 60 tickets in that roll.Each ticket has a number on the bottom of it. The first ticket in the roll will be numbered '000'. This may vary from state to state and is not a hard number, so ask if thinking about buying a roll.
The next ticket will be 001, then 002 and so on. So in a roll with 150 tickets, the first ticket is number 000 and the last ticket is number 149. (Because the first number is 000, NOT 001). I have found that certain ticket numbers perform VERY well consistently, over and over again ... even in different geographical locations.
NOTE: YOU CAN ASK THE CASHIER WHAT THE TICKET NUMBER IS BEFORE YOU BUY IT, THEY DON'T HAVE TO TELL YOU, BUT IT IS NOT AGAINST ANY RULES.
If the cashier won't tell you, have a talk with the store's manager to straighten things out. If the store isn't friendly and cooperative buy your tickets somewhere else.
Although they might think you are a little strange! And, if you're going to ask the number of every scratch off ticket they have ... make sure no one is behind you in line!
Understand, they will not should not sell you out of sequence tickets from the roll, if you find my theory successful you must buy the surrounding tickets as necessary around the ones I recommend to get them.
My favorite time is when I walk in and there are only a couple of tickets left, and I ask if they have more of that roll and they say yes and I buy those last tickets and 18 off the top of the new roll.
How To Win Scratch Lottery
In my years of playing (and winning a large part of the time!) I have had much success with the following ticket 'numbers':
000 (The first ticket of the roll)
006
007
008
011
012
017
018
And then the second to last and last tickets, which the number will vary.
I like to play $5 scratch-offs the best. There are usually 50 tickets in the roll, with number 049 being the last ticket.
In this case, 048 would be the second to last ticket. I've had great luck with that number, as well as 049 (the last ticket of the roll).
'Winners In A Row'
What do I mean by 'winners in a row' ?
It's pretty simple. I have noticed a pattern. Sometimes when there are more than 2 winners in a row ... There will be a run of winners that sometimes lasts for 5-10 tickets!
I know that the lottery is supposed to be completely random and it is and random often includes clusters. However, These patterns over YEARS of time cannot be merely coincidence. So, please don't go out and squander your life savings thinking that this is going to be the answer. But, I bet it will increase the times you win when you play scratchers!
Let's say you're playing a $2 scratch off game and you win a free ticket so you get the next one. It's another free ticket (or a $2 or $4 prize). Then you get the next one (or two) and you win on one of those or both. Now you know you've hit a run. So far you've played 4-5 tickets but you only paid for one, $2. You can probably afford another $10 to spare if you hit one of these situations. In many of these cases, I have continued to play and after a few tickets there was a $25, $50 or even a $100 winner. MANY times.
Winner After Winning Same Prize As Price Of Ticket
Ok that might sound confusing, but it's really easy to grasp, trust me.
I find that if you win a cash prize that is equal to the same prize of the ticket (i.e winning a $10 prize on a $10 scratch off ticket) -- you will often have a prize right after it.
So basically you've already broken even, and now you're re-risking (reinvesting) your money back into the very next ticket.
I did this the other day on a $10 scratch off ticket. I won $10, cashed it in and played the next one and won $250!
Of course it's not guaranteed to work, but it has worked for me a lot of times in the past, with all different priced scratchers from $2 - $20 tickets.
'Work' A Roll - 'Break The Game'
I usually buy my lottery tickets at the same convenient store near my house.
Whenever I spot a new game, I'll give it a shot... especially if it's on the first ticket or early on in the roll.
I'll scratch one there and maybe buy the next one if I didn't win and I'll bring it home. (ALWAYS PLAY RESPONSIBLY and DON'T SPEND MORE THAN YOU CAN AFFORD!)
If I lose that one as well, or win a free ticket which is common... I will wait until the next day and play the same game.
One time I played one single game over the course of a week. Finally ... I won a $500 winner on that same roll!
Could you imagine if someone else bought that ticket before me?!
Of course there's luck involved but you do IMPROVE YOUR ODDS OF WINNING when you do things like this. ; - )
Buy A Roll
If you are in the financial position... You can also buy an entire, unopened roll for $300 and scratch off EVERY ticket in the roll!
Of course, as I mentioned before, it is unlikely that you will win the TOP prize ($10,000+) although you theoretically can.
However, what if you won $5,000 or $1,000? Even $500 would be cool!
Or you could just break even or come out a few bucks ahead, but either way it's all in good fun!
The point is... Buying a whole roll DEFINITELY improves your chances of winning a decent prize!
If you're not in the financial position to do so ... You can always go in on a roll with a friend or a group of friends ...
'Ask The Cashier'
When you go into a store to buy a scratch off lottery ticket, don't be afraid to converse with the cashier or lottery counter person and ask questions before you choose the ticket that you want to purchase.
I have asked cashiers what number the ticket is on every time I've ever bought a scratch off ticket. I just explain to them that it is a luck thing!
I have also asked if anyone has claimed any big prizes on the game I'm about to purchase. If they say, 'Oh some guy just won $50 on that game a few hours ago' I will stay away from it.
There's usually a nice winner in every roll -- At least a $25 winner, but almost ALWAYS a $50 and even a $100 winner. And every few rolls, there will be a $500 winner in there. These prizes are NOT uncommon! It's only the bigger prizes that are rarer like the $1,000 and up ones.
What NOT To Do!
Know when to stop - Play responsibly!
Conclusion
If you implement all of these tips into your scratch off lottery playing, I am sure that you will experience an increase in winnings.
Based on my experiences alone, I have no doubt that these occurrences are more than just coincidence -- Especially considering how often they happen [for me].
Remember to play the NEW games, meaning the ones that just came out recently. These are chock full of prizes!
Gambling and gambling addiction can be serious problems and I do not wish to condone out of control gambling or bad habits in any way.
My intention is to simply share my tips with fellow lottery enthusiasts who will most likely be playing anyway, with my tips or not!
'You can't win the lottery, if you don't buy a ticket!' - You can apply this quote to so many aspects of your life. Sometimes, if you don't 'take action' -- Nothing will happen!
Here's to your scratch off success,
Thanks for visiting Lotto-Logix!