Here are a couple of tips that I think can be useful to most scratchoff players
I've been doing a lot of research lately on scratchoffs and I've found that lower priced games have a disadvantage to the player in the 33% to 40% range. When you start playing games that are $10 or $20 or more the advantage to the state drops down to about 22%-25%.
Also, games that have a prize of a free ticket give the state a little bit more of an edge. In the prize payout calculations these are figured in at face value. If you buy a $1.00 ticket and win $1.00 that is better than winning a free $1.00 ticket. Why? The actual value of that ticket is only about $.67 in most cases because you will get back about $.67 for every $1.00 you spend on these games because the state has a 33% advantage.
Do the analysis on the remaining prizes, it is easy to find the best tickets with some Excel skills and the remaining prize statistics for your state. Playing the right game can change the states advantage from as much as 45% down to as little as 4%.
lottocalgal makes some excellent points above. However, I have to disagree with #1, if you have $4.00 to spend you should spend it on a higher priced ticket, either a $4 or $5 or even two $2 tickets would give you a better chance in most cases.
Also #4, she says, "Do not buy tickets with fewer than 1000 remaining large winnings". This statement would depend on how many tickets haven't been sold. A game with fewer than 1000 remaining top prizes is probably a good investment if 80% of the tickets have been sold and 4 of 5 grand prizes are still unclaimed.
Good Luck!!!