Scratch-Off Tickets bought by the pack/roll

Reply #32

tjbrnsgr — Tue, 15 Jul 2014 22:09:38 GMT

I just purchased a pack $300 of the new $2500 for life and took a $275 loss don't waste your money.

Reply #31

LottoMetro — Tue, 01 Jul 2014 19:21:41 GMT

My thoughts on buying by the roll:

It reduces variance. If the game were a profitable one, then reduced variance is exactly what you want.

Unfortunately, lottery games are far from profitable. So higher variance is really the only thing that can help you profit.

Over the long run, it doesn't matter much whether you buy 1 ticket 100 times or a roll of 100 tickets because the expected values will converge. You will just reach the expected value faster by buying the roll. The benefit of b... [ More ]

Reply #30

MattfromPA — Tue, 01 Jul 2014 19:06:35 GMT

Wow sorry to hear that. Looks a bit similar to the Lucky X20 $5 roll I got this year in PA, though that somehow managed to get 50% back. The loser zones make me afraid to buy in bulk anymore.

I enjoy playing rolls but make it a once or twice a year at most thing. Some years may not be able to get one. Still have not profited from a roll after 4 of them.

Reply #29

gatorsrok — Tue, 01 Jul 2014 03:19:37 GMT

Well my co-workers (convinced that I am on a lucky streak) coerced me into going 4 ways for another roll of the $200 Million Spectacular ($10/ticket with 60 tickets on a roll = $600). Needless to day, we got our asses kicked. I've never seen one this bad. I triple checked the winners and losers. Here were the results:

Ticket No Payout

0 $10.00

1 $0.00

2 $0.00

3 $0.00

4 $0.00

5 $0.00

6 $0.00

7 $0.00

8 $0.00

9 $0.00

10 $0.00

11 $0.00... [ More ]

Reply #28

malloc — Sun, 22 Jun 2014 03:26:11 GMT

That roll looks pretty good except for the end. I feel like I run into 6-7 losers in a row only to get a break even way too often. Otherwise, 4 losers in a row to win $100 is fine as long as you are willing to chase. I agree that I think you got a nice roll. Too bad it didn't profit but I would gladly take your result any day.

Reply #27

OldSchoolHits — Sun, 22 Jun 2014 02:48:37 GMT

Very cool, and I agree that it exceeded expectations. 5 winners of $100 is pretty cool. Didn't see that coming at all! I've bought 2 rolls of $1,000 so far; the first a couple years ago with Billion Dollar Blockbuster, the second on the current 100x game. Both times were not great returns. The BDB returned only $495 I believe. Might have been $595. The 100x wasn't that great either. I clearly remember having 2 winners of $100 for the BDB roll. Hitting 5 in the LFL roll you scratched is very cool... [ More ]

Reply #26

gatorsrok — Sun, 22 Jun 2014 02:09:31 GMT

Well I decided to go all out an buy a roll of the Lucky $200,000 A Year for Life (50 tickets at $20/ticket - Florida scratch-off). Here were the results:

Ticket No Payout

0 $0.00

1 $50.00

2 $20.00

3 $0.00

4 $0.00

5 $0.00

6 $0.00

7 $100.00

8 $0.00

9 $20.00

10 $30.00

11 $0.00

12 $30.00

13 $40.00

14 $25.00

15 $20.00

16 $0.00

17 $0.00

18 $0.00

19 $0.00

20 $100.00

21 $0.00

22 $0.00

Reply #25

GetReal720 — Thu, 05 Jun 2014 15:13:37 GMT

I can somewhat agree.

Each pack of tickets is designed to be profitable for the lottery. So

take all the tickets of that entire game and assemble them into one giant

pack.... that mega pack is still designed to be profitable and having one pack

of 30 $20 tickets is still designed to be as profitable as one big pack of 300

$20 tickets.

For example, lets say in PA that a particular game is designed to return 55%

if every ticket was sold and every winner were claimed.... [ More ]

Reply #24

dr65 — Thu, 05 Jun 2014 03:53:38 GMT

ronnieh, you are right some people are luckier than others but some places are luckier than others too.

I notice around my area there are rotten places and good places. There are some places I avoid because I

never win anything good there. $20 on a $20 isn't a good win for me, in fact, it's irritating. Now, that's only

me because I want something bigger than my $20 back although it brings me right back to where I was.

Spend it, win it back. I would like to spend it and win 100x's bac... [ More ]

Reply #23

ronnieh — Wed, 04 Jun 2014 23:41:08 GMT

I am no statistician or math guru and never won more than $1000 on a scratchoff. However I can not figure out how one and done vs buying a roll vs any other method I see talked about in here is any better. Seems to me its all blind luck unless you know everything that was played off of any given roll and know exactly how many prizes are available at that given second. The odds are very much against us no matter what we do. I have bought several rolls over the years and never even broke even. I h... [ More ]

Reply #22

dr65 — Wed, 04 Jun 2014 16:56:16 GMT

This idea is perfect.

Just take your posted odds of 1 winner of $500 in 14 packs. Say 2 packs at most are at the store you normally buy from

and you decide to chase or buy a pack that way. What are the chances of hitting that 1/14 in your store that has 2 packs

...heck, who would even play the entire (let alone cost and if the entire pack is there - not that someone played 5 tickets

or more out of each) 2 packs they have with the chance that it could be one of the 13 losing packs? In... [ More ]

Reply #21

mrcraft — Wed, 04 Jun 2014 01:34:01 GMT

I don't like buying rolls either. Here's how I look at it, using our $20 payout schedule and odds as an example.

Our $20 game comes in packs of 30, so it's $600. Generally speaking, the only way to profit from rolls is to find a $500 or higher winner in the pack. The odds are 1 in 420 to hit the $500 which is 1 in 14 packs. So, with this game, I see my odds at profiting from a roll to be about 1 in 14.

With this game, in a typical book, you'll see one $100, one or two $50, one $25, four $2... [ More ]

Reply #20

zzplayfaster — Wed, 04 Jun 2014 00:31:48 GMT

Buying by the roll has never seemed to be a good idea. I tried it once on $1 scratchers and from the others that have posted the results, I've noticed that the positions of winners and their prize amounts makes it impossible to profit even if you only bought within the areas of the concentrated winners.

One thing I've tried (with mixed results) is the Build your own roll by buying the same game from several different locations. Have not spent $600+ at one time because it just seems too e... [ More ]

Reply #19

marketing — Fri, 23 May 2014 05:42:13 GMT

2 years ago, when I was just getting into scratchers, I bought a roll of $2 tickets. I thought I had it all figured out, a real strategy. Within the first 10 I'd hit a $50...by the end of the pack I had hit 2 $2 winners; that was it.

I can't remember if that roll came in a 100 pack or 50, but I can tell you this - I lost money and that strategy sucked. In the years since I've dropped the idea of strategy, but I rarely just buy 1. I found 2 - 3 to be a pretty good chance at hitting 50% o... [ More ]

Reply #18

gatorsrok — Sat, 03 May 2014 01:44:09 GMT

Nice job. It's tough to profit from the rolls but you just need one decent winner to make it happen.

Reply #17

Starke$ — Fri, 02 May 2014 04:44:26 GMT

Bought a roll of Shimmering 7's that costs $300 from the Forida lottery. $5 tickets with 60 tickets in a roll. Won $565 from the roll. Had a $400 winner in the roll. Profitted around $265 from the roll

Reply #16

gatorsrok — Tue, 22 Apr 2014 02:53:57 GMT

The overall result is pretty much what I expected. I split it 3 ways with two other co-workers so I didn't take too bad of a beating. I was grateful for that $50 win at the end because it was looking pretty bad until that point. I agree that the first half of the roll was brutal. My co-workers and I do this every few months, so maybe our luck will be better next time. One $500 win and we leave ahead.

Reply #15

OldSchoolHits — Tue, 22 Apr 2014 02:37:42 GMT

Wow. First 25 tickets of that roll were brutal. I've come ahead on only two rolls ever--but I understand the temptation to buy entire rolls. It's hit or miss. Hope you do better next time.

Reply #14

gatorsrok — Tue, 22 Apr 2014 02:14:09 GMT

In case anyone is interested. We bought a roll of the $200 MS. Here were the results:

Ticket No. Prize Won (If no ticket number is listed, it was a loser)

07 $10

09 $20

13 $50

25 $10

28 $10

29 $15

37 $10

38 $10

39 $100

42 $15

50 $10

51 $10

52 $20

53 $20

55 $15

57 $10

59 $50

Total payout was $385 for a loss of $215. I still have not made money on a roll.

Reply #13

gatorsrok — Thu, 17 Apr 2014 02:39:48 GMT

Well I am going three ways (me and two co-workers) sometime this week or next week to buy a $10 roll of the $200 Million Spectaculary ($600 roll in Florida). I've bought two previous rolls with my co-workers and we got back $405 the first time and $410 the second time. So I'll let everyone know how it goes. There is a small chance we may buy the $20 roll of Super Millions for the same $600.

Reply #12

Risky — Thu, 10 Apr 2014 23:07:42 GMT

Yea, this is straight up fraud if you ask me.

Reply #11

Hysteria — Fri, 28 Mar 2014 06:44:18 GMT

I'm from South Carolina so the maximum price a pack/book of lottery tickets (from $1 - $10) can cost is a total of $300. I have only brought whole packs of $10 tickets and usually only when they are doing special books with 2nd chance opportunities and $1 million top prize pay outs (i.e. Diamond Millionaire, Money Money Millionaire and currently Millionaire Madness). The most I've made on a profit from buying a $10 book was $400. It was a Money Money Millionaire pack that had a $500 instant win... [ More ]

Reply #10

d1nnl2 — Thu, 27 Mar 2014 13:29:28 GMT

Last weekend I got burned with the $5 NJ crossword. I started playing, half-way thru a pack ($300 a pack, 60 tix) and ended up chasing the winner which was the last ticket on the roll. I then got tempted to play the next roll, hoping the winner would come early. It didn't. It was half-way. So by now, I won $100 on number 59 of the old roll and used that to get to number 25 of the new roll to win $100.

By this time, I should have stopped. I may have been losing $20-$30 only. But I went on to p... [ More ]

Reply #9

david321 — Thu, 27 Mar 2014 06:18:50 GMT

Yeah that is what I have been thinking. They are pretty bad odds if you buy them by the pack.

Reply #8

GAlotto1 — Wed, 26 Mar 2014 04:15:24 GMT

In Georgia, all rolls cost 300 dollars, with a guaranteed payout of at least 130 per roll so I feel like buying the roll is less risky than it sounds like in other states

Reply #7

gatorsrok — Wed, 26 Mar 2014 04:11:58 GMT

That would seem kind of odd. Florida usually keeps the overall payout structure for most rolls at a return of about 40% to 45%. Getting $50 on a $20 ticket roll ($600 total) would seem very odd.

I have bought 5 rolls (2 x $10 rolls and 4 x $5 rolls) total over many years and I have never profited once. My best outcome was with a $10 roll when I only lost $150 because of several $100 wins.

If you do buy the rolls, do it for fun because the odds are stacked up against you greatly.

Reply #6

pick3pro — Tue, 18 Mar 2014 10:08:30 GMT

I have seen as little as 50.00 from a roll of 20.00 tickets,not a good practice I would think

Reply #5

Starke$ — Sat, 08 Mar 2014 01:39:42 GMT

I have bought a total of 6 rolls thus far. The first roll I ever purchased was the ($5) Lucky Loot for $300. bought 5 rolls of them on seperate occasions. Only profitted on the first roll for only $25. Spent $300 and made $325. Of course that wasn't satisfying enough, so I immediately purchased another one with winnings and only won $130 from the next roll. The other 3 rolls I bought of the same game won only $185. Then recently last week, I chucked out $600 for a roll of the new $20 Super Milli... [ More ]

Reply #4

david321 — Thu, 20 Feb 2014 22:08:35 GMT

Thanks OldSchoolHits! Good luck to you too

Reply #3

OldSchoolHits — Thu, 20 Feb 2014 15:56:03 GMT

One roll gave a profit of approximately $450, it had a $500 winner as well as three winners of $100 and smaller amounts, and the other one returned a profit of maybe $300. The rolls cost $600. The worst one returned only $210.

Reply #2

MDguy — Thu, 20 Feb 2014 13:53:05 GMT

How did you do on the rolls you profited on

Reply #1

OldSchoolHits — Thu, 20 Feb 2014 05:58:31 GMT

I have bought seven or eight complete rolls. I have only profited twice. Both times were decent profits, but unfortunately my losing experiences were brutal. There are many players, even big time players, who refuse to buy whole rolls. I can see why, but I definitely get the urge every so often to get the whole roll-- you're thinking man, there's gonna be a good winner in this roll, I can feel it. That 10k ticket is in this roll somewhere! Hey, if you can do it financially and you want to try it... [ More ]

Scratch-Off Tickets bought by the pack/roll

david321 — Thu, 20 Feb 2014 04:46:14 GMT

Hey Lottery Post members, just wanted to find out if anybody had ever bought whole packs of scratch-off tickets. How did you end up after scrathing all of them