Is buying 2 scratchers in a row better?Previous TopicNext Topic

What do you guys think...

Do you think buying 2 scratch offs in a row is better than just buying 1? My first reaction to this strategy was that it does seem to give better odds. However, I have graduated to buying $20 scratchers so to me, risking $40 is a little much.

I have won on these high priced scratchers (nothing major just $100) but I am just thinking on some strategies (if there are any) that might increase my odds of winning.

great idea, excellent...

if it was me if the scratchoff doesnt cost more than 5 dollars then you should do it but it if cost like 20 dollars then no...

but is an excellent idea...bying 2 at a time is sure is better...

if u are willing to scratch them at the store then buy 1 and see if that wins first.  but, obviously the more you buy the more chances u have.  only buy what u can afford.

For the most part if one isn't a winner then chances are the next one will have something. The problem is when you're buying $20 tickets then things can spiral out of control very quickly.

Hi,

One thing that can be helpfull when buying scratch-offs is go to your states lottery website and look under games. go to where the tickets are located click on the tickets that you like to play or look at the list if you click, on each ind one it should tell you the odds. for example 1:4:3 so really what that means is 1 in ea 4 tickets is a winner, might not be the big one could just be another ticket. the lower the odds the better. Something to think about.

In addition to what Divine is saying you might also want to check and see how many of the TOP prizes are remaining. Georgia's lottery website gives this info; you should know if your state's site provides this info.

I bought two by mistake once..I thought I lost the first one and went back and bout the next one on the roll then I found the first one in the car floor..One was a winner for 20.00 and the other was for 40.00..I win more by QP's and by mistake..Good luck.........

How true, how true: A player came into the local convenience store recently: Started buying scratch-offs: Rubbed them Off and Cashed any Winners in right away: Kept playing until they had no money left. They had come into the store with $600 left the store with $0.

I saw something akin to that except in reverse. A lady bought one ticket from the vending machine - won $50, bought another - won $40, bought another - won $100. She then went to the clerk, cashed them in and left. Some people know when to quit. I think I would have kept buying til I hit a loser in case it was my lucky day but who knows, maybe she's got the touch. It sure beat playing til you lost everything.

When you buy two in a row, you are guaranteeing that both came from the same roll or pack.   At first glance, this seems to better your odds of the second ticket being a winning ticket if the first is a losing ticket but you also have to keep in mind that most packs/rolls only have the bare minimum number of winning prizes to meet the contractual minimum hence buying from more than one pack though lowering your odds of winning the small prizes, increases the odds of winning the larger prizes or rather doesn't exclude the larger prizes as quickly.

For example, the Texas $20 Blockbuster game has packs of 25 tickets, and although there are enough prizes in the $20, $25 and $30 value range for all packs to have some and if they were evenly divided amongst all packs, these low value prizes would exactly meet the $160 per pack prize guarantee, there are only half as many $50 prizes as there are packs printed.   If the $50 prizes are also evenly distributed then only every other pack would have a $50 winning ticket hence when you buy both tickets in a row, there's a 50% chance that you have absolutely no chance of winning a $50 prize and of the remaining 50%, there's only a 2 in 25 chance of winning the $50 prize but if you buy the tickets from two separate packs then there's a 3/4 chance of having at least one 1 in 25 chance of the $50 prize rather than a 1/2 chance of having a 2 in 25 chance of the $50 prize.

Note that the argument for the prizes to be even distributed is that the lottery commission is less likely to be sued if the prizes were evenly distributed between all packs and the packs shuffled during the distribution process but they save money in the printing process if most of the packs only have the minimum and the higher value prizes are only in a smaller production run.   Exactly where they are along this spectrum is anyone's guess.