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You're right of course, $50 is steep. You shouldn't spend more than you can afford to lose. But they compensate on the $5o one. The odds of winning a big prize are great, and with about 1 in 3 paying off, that's good odds you'd get the fifty back or better. If you don't, well this is gambling. About 1 in three times you'd feel a small relief you didn't lose the money, slightly more often you'd be disappointed, and occaisionally you might be very pleased.

   Me, I do extra work, make things and sell them for money to buy tickets. If I plan to buy a $20 ticket I do some project to raise $20. I don't spend any of my regular income on tickets. I thought Texas Summer Spectacular at 20 looked interesting, so I had a friend send me two last month. One had nothing, the other was a break even ticket. Then there was all the trouble of mailing the ticket to Texas to cash it.

*** My mistake. I just looked and the TX Summer Spectacular is only $10.  I also checked the odds on the $50 ticket and its not very good. Not much chance of winning the large prizes at all. Best chances with it of getting either $70 or $50 prizes, so its not worth the nervousness of investing that much!

Hey anyone out there from Tenn.? I live in VA. close to the border and was thinking of buying TN scratchers, but when I looked on their website today I couldn't find any page that showed the odds, or how many tickets had been claimed. No charts to study! Link please. Can anyone help? ABout once a month I'd like to do a road trip for the fun of it and hit nearby states and out of the way convenience stores to buy scratchers.

I'm in TN.  The TN lottery website has lists of the scratchers and you can click on each one to get the odds.  At the top of the page(scratchers list) there is a link that lists how many of the top 3 prizes are left.  Hope that helps and I'd post a link but not sure if that's allowed.  :D

Thanks, I guess I just didn't find the link before. Well it's late Thursday night. Would you believe I still haven't cashed my big winner? I called the lottery office and they told me I had to have proof of my social security number. I'm working for myself up here and don't have any old tax forms or anything. Of course I know my number. So today I had to go to an office in another city to file for a copy of the social security card. Tomorrow morning, Knock on wood, I actually get to drive almost to the border to get cash or a check for the scratcher. I don't know what they give you. Never had to go to the office to claim a large amount before.

Hi, just reporting they finally gave me my check. The first time I drove 80 miles to the lottery office they wouldn't accept the receipt from the Social security office, so I had to wait another week for the actual replacement card to arrive! Well this morning I went back with the card, they gave me a $1000 check and a free coffee mug. I deposited the check in my bank.

Looking forward to my next scratch day I've been collecting lots of $5 tickets of one kind with a large number of unclaimed prizes. I'm going out of town tomorrow to buy some of them at small stores in small towns I never usually go to. And taking cash! I stopped at a store on the way back and it wouldn't sell me tickets on a debit card. I'm used to "NO credit cards" for scratch off sales, but the local convenience store sells if you use your debit card.

    The nice gal there hadn't put the ticket I like out yet when I stopped in before my trip to the lottery office. She was about to fill the empty plastic bin. I said I had a 160 mile RT to make first but I'd be back at noon.

The sweet ole gal put the tickets in, but had them turned around so no one bought any, so when I came back, at 1pm, she was able to sell me the first five tickets on that roll. I'm going to tip that gal if I win on her tickets.

I mean to say sometimes thoise tickets are winners.

Good for you I will be glad when it's my turn to win a Jackpot.  like that!

yes tickets must be sold in order. every ticket has its own number #  so when employer gets new roll of scrach off tickets they must sell it in order.   at the end of shift employer counts how many tickets were sold and must report to lottery office.  employers count would be wrong if sold the last ticket  the whole roll is wrong unless you buy the whole roll. its just the counting system the register would be either short money or over. i dont think anybody would sell you the middle ticket or last ticket  or whatever  you just get the next ticket thats all.   i prefer you play small numbers on scrach off tickets.

the best strategy for me is to buy the tickets ten at a time. so 10 $2 dollar tickets,and im out 20. The most I have won like that is just shy of $250. In NJ, the rolls of tickets go for $300. so if theres 150 in the roll, i like to buy #'s 75-85. Also, if you receive a few tickets that have , for example, ten $1 prizes, or a $2 dollar prize under the bonus bag, or a "win everything" symbol and you only win less then 20 dollars, the roll is "sour" . The idea around my store is that all the really big winners are with those little bonus symbols. Most of the photo copies of big winners seem to be when the ticket wins every prize, or wins a prize under the little bonus symbol. I barely break even on scratch offs though. And "continuing games ". like for example, crosswords, that come out seasonally in different colors, seem to have more winners because they keep putting cash into them.  hope my insights help!

It all helps! Here's a shocker I figured out. In order to turn a profit and give away the occaisional big prize. MOST of the rolls of tickets for any game are "sour", that is, no big winners. If the software or whoever distributes the rolls has determined the sour rolls go to your local store, you'll be wasting your money sadly hoping to win. But all the rolls look like they have big winners on them. They're identical . They're flashy, cleverly designed.

Buying a number of tickets is best if your'e comitted to it and can afford it, otherwise you might miss the prize ticket or two prizes in a row. But the best way I can think of to give yourself a chance to win big is to travel around and buy some at different stores. If you COULD hit every store in the state, you'd be buying at the store where the big prize ticket is. Of course I can't do that, but I try to get around.

I like your comment about the prize symbol, ie money bag, diamond. I've won some good jackpots, $100, $1000, but with matching numbers. I've always wanted to see those special prize symbols, the doublers and the win alls!

On my next designated scratching day, I'll have at least fifty tickets saved up. The first thing I'll do is go through scratching off "Your number"s and see if I have any instant win symbols like that and set those tickets aside. Then, I'll scratch off the "Winning numbers" across the top, and compare them to mine, which takes much longer. I know it sounds like a crazy system but if I didn't plan it for one day, I'd spend much more. And this way, I've time to have written down each numbered ticket in a book, so I know when and where I bought them. Yes, I'm absolutely crazy about scratch offs. But there really are people winning the $150,000 prizes! There are people who won a million dollars. So its not crazy to figure out how to control your playing and improve your odds. What I really want to know is, has anyone really won big on those "White stripe" tickets? You know, the bj min rumor that tickets printed with a thin special stripe between them have prizes? I always buy them when I can, but so far, no prizes on them at all!

I usually play $5 and $10 tickets.

I buy the last 6-8 tickets on the roll from places that insert the rolls backwards - that is, the tickets start at 029 (or 059) and count backwards to zero. One at a time, of course - no point in buying all five tickets if 005 is a winner.

If I hit something - 15 or more on a $5 ticket, or $25 or more on a $10 ticket, I quit immediately.

Working at a gas station that sells a bunch of tickets, I can tell you that 9 out of 10 times, there's a $50 winner at the beginning of the roll (005, 004, 003.... etc.) I've hit as many as half a dozen $50 winners in one afternoon that way, of course, with the money invested I'm probably only up about 70 bucks, but hey, gas station hopping and making that much in an hour is... heh. Of course, there's days I get my butt beat - I just go home, and wait until next payday, I'll budget another $50 or so for more scratchers.

That, and I *always* do the second chance drawing, if there is one.

Here's a couple of tips, though:

Anyone from Kentucky? Avoid the blue Jumbo Bucks. Bad news. Baaaaaaaaaaaaaad.

If you don't mind diving around in the trash a bit, some gas stations and stores keep a garbage can right next to the scratch station. Go ahead and pick through - see if some sucker has lost six times in a row on a ticket in front of you. Keep it, there's always the off chance he missed something. Just in this past week, I've found $19 and a $10 free ticket that way. It's made stopping worth my while.

Hello2009, apparently you haven't bought tickets around here. Its a pretty regular thing for certain tickets to be sold on request and whats assumed to be the losers left for everyone else. I have noticed it from buying multiples and certain ones be gone - the rolls are broken.

Doesn't happen at just one location, but alot of them around here. Could it be, one person going around to pick them up? Or, is it the store owners? Either, likely.

How can anyone possibly claim to have a method for winning with scratch-offs???

Unbelievable!

I've seen them all...  The line, the black "L" between tickets, buying even tickets, buying the first and last ticket...  I've been playing instant tickets for a while and this is what I've come up with...

I've never won on a ticket number 13.  I've won the most on $20 and $10; however, was lucky enough to win $100 on a $2 ticket.  Usually the last ticket is a loser. (I learned this early in the game so I avoid them.)  If the first ticket is a winner it's usually a break even or small prize.  The $10+ tickets have the best odds of winning.  I also find it pointless to buy 5 $2 tickets or 10 $1 tickets because most of the winners are small prizes.  I would rather buy one $10 ticket for a better chance at $20.  (In general, the odds increase from 1:300;1:150 to 1:12 based on Florida Lottery instants.  Odds vary by state but you get the point.)

I am trying the method by "How to win on scratchers .com" where he suggests buying one ticket at a time and that isn't working so far LOL!!!! I buy the 1 dollar tickets and I haven't won anything yet, NC tickets don't pay that well at all.  I am trying the positive visualization method you explained in your post earlier and I am re- reading Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. It is a good book to always read over and over again because you can always learn something new from it.  Good luck to you!!!!!!

Say for mothers day there is a mothers day ticket.  The tickets comes out in April are there better chances of winning the bigger prizes closer to the holiday or it does not matter.