Celebratory game now the most expensive ticket in the state
By Kate Northrop
Last week, the California Lottery's first $40 scratch-off game, its most expensive ticket, made its debut to celebrate the Lottery's 40-year history.
The California Lottery's new $40 scratch-off game, which marks four decades of state lottery history, offers players a higher price point than the previous maximum of $30.
"40 Years of Play!" is the California Lottery's latest family of scratch-off games, featuring two distinct price points that play on the "40" theme. It's a brightly colored ticket that showcases the state's signature grizzly bear and is sure to stand out to California natives.
"For 40 years, we've been proud to raise extra funding for California's public schools," Lottery Director Harjinder K. Shergill Chima said in a press release. "We are excited to kick off 2025 with a new game that gives people a chance to celebrate with us. Since we sold our first game in 1985, together with our players and our retail partners, we've raised more than $46 billion to benefit students across California."
The $40 game offers a chance at winning one of five available top prizes of $15 million at odds of approximately 1 in 3.04 million. There are also ten second-tier prizes of $100,000 and 130 third-tier prizes of $40,000 in the game. The overall odds of winning any prize are 1 in 2.85.
While the new $40 ticket headlines the occasion, the California Lottery did not want to leave players who don't enjoy the pricier tickets out of the celebration. The "40 Years of Play!" family of games includes a $2 version with a $40,000 top prize, the highest one-time lump sum top prize offered at that price point.
The $2 game offers 13 top prizes of $40,000 at odds of about 1 in 1.2 million. There are also a total of 398 second-tier prizes of $1,000 and 1,320 third-tier prizes of $400. The odds of winning any prize in the game are 1 in 4.32.
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1 in 3 million doesn't seem bad for a scratch ticket top prize. New Jersey lottery is lacking with the highest current prize being 4 million, which is 1 in 8.5 million, lol
for a scratch ticket wow
If I was in California, I would give it one shot.
This is the way I would look at it to make it reasonable.
I would ask myself, how much do I spend a week on the lottery? So let's say I spend $20.
Then I would say, let me take two weeks off my budget and play this one ticket.
Then I wouldn't play anything for the next two weeks and continue with my normal play on the third week.
You see, that way I don't spend an extra dollar and if I win anything on the scratch off, I could use it to play my normal games.
Lol, hope my reasoning helps someone who is struggling to spend $40 on a single ticket 😊
I agree with your reasoning around budgeting for two weeks, I'm going to give it a try myself! It looks like a great alternative for when other jackpots are low.
Thanks Kate, I appreciate that you found that helpful.
Remember to adjust your budget "honestly" and not flow with my $20 example.
If the weekly budget is $5, then that's 4 weeks of play forfeited.
If the weekly budget is $40, then that's one week of play forfeited etc. 🤣🤣🤣🤣
No, that is wrong. Not saying you should play 40.00 scratch off tickets but this waiting until a jackpot reaches a certain level before you play is ludicrous. Your numbers come in but it was only a 90 million dollar jackpot so you say that was below my threshold to play so I am not upset at all about it. Lottery players are all over 45 or most. How many more chances will you get if you only play when it reaches it seems 300 million is the desired amount people want minimum. Some only play billion dollar jackpots which happen about once a year. You have to play every day no matter how much is in there. The amount in the jackpot should never be a factor. 4 weeks of play forfeited because you spent 40.00 on one ticket or even one week is silly and I might add idiotic.
I totally agree with you billybucks, one can win the jackpot at any time and that is why I do play regardless of the amount.
However, I think you did not understand the point that I was making.
If you read my first comment and follow it up with the response to Kate, then probably you will get it, but if you still don't get it, well, there is always another day 🙏
"Idiotic" is a totally extreme way to describe someone's personal preference for budgeting their spend on lottery tickets per week. Cheers! 🍻
Yes, that should be retracted.
As a longtime New Jersey Lottery player, I totally agree with you that our state is lacking. I almost never play scratch-offs here, preferring to play in the nearby states of New York, Pennsylvania and Delaware. The odds are so much better as is the probability and the prizes.
For example, New Jersey Lottery's new $1 million Ultimate Spectacular has odds of 1 in 4.
But get this, they printed more than 9.3 million tickets and of that about $3 million is for prizes $500 and under with the vast majority of those prizes being "free ticket" or $50 and $100. There are 9 prizes of $1 million, 10 of $50,000 and 20 of $10,000, 118 of $5000 and 319 of $2000.
It doesn't take a genius to realize that the sheer number of printed tickets dilutes the probability since about 70 percent of the tickets or about 5.5 million tickets contain no prize at all.
Compare that with the 1 in 2.5 or 1 in 3.3 odds of other states at this price point, which also have many more higher prizes and print a few million fewer tickets at all price levels. In fairness, however, it should be pointed out that the New Jersey Lottery apparently has to return a very large share of its scratch-off profits back to the state. That makes it heard for them to compete with nearby states.