How are people in Massachusetts doing with scratch tickets?

Reply #10

ASja2002 — Fri, 21 Mar 2014 00:22:02 GMT

I've played a fair number of $10 and $20 tickets. I hit quite a few $200 and $500 winners on the Billion $$ Blockbuster when it first came out, but not as much in recent years, probably because I just don't have the money to buy $100 at a time like I used to. The only times I've hit $1,000 have been on $5 games so I tend to gravitate towards that price point

Reply #9

Chacha33 — Thu, 20 Mar 2014 20:16:17 GMT

The odds have improved noticeably and there are more $20 to $500 winners with far better odds than what was once offered. California didn't have a $10 game until 2011 and the $5 games were only released at a rate of about four or five a year from 2004 (when $5 games were introduced) to 2011. However, the jackpot odds are worse, which is fine; I certainly don't mind better odds for lower-tier prizes. Although in the 14 years I've played, $200 is the most I've won on scrathcers and those were five... [ More ]

Reply #8

shyguitar — Thu, 20 Mar 2014 19:51:51 GMT

Hi Chacha33,

Now you have got me curious about your scratch tickets in your state. Will have to check out your website for your states lottery. I tend to play locally because it would cost too much in gas to drive too far to get scratch tickets. Though you do bring up a good point about trying to get tickets in a bordering state like Rhode Island or New Hampshire. And New Hampshire doesn't have state taxes like they do in Mass. Now that they did an overhaul of the lottery in your state have y... [ More ]

Reply #7

Chacha33 — Thu, 20 Mar 2014 19:37:09 GMT

Odds in winning lower-tier prizes in Mass don't seem to be too bad, at least your games are fairly diverse. If you've seen the California tickets, you'll discover that many of our games are simply duplicates of past games, just with a different color and name (see the $5 and $3 crosswords).

Such a large number of tickets printed for a relatively small state. I guess if you're not feeling lucky, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine Lotteries are always a... [ More ]

Reply #6

shyguitar — Thu, 20 Mar 2014 19:12:03 GMT

Hi Chacha33,

I didn't realize that your scratch tickets in California are not good. Mass is the only state that I know about in terms of scratch tickets. It's hard to feel positive about our scratch tickets when the odds still seem stacked against a decent win. When you have a 5 dollar scratch ticket that prints out 25 million tickets and only 6 people can win 1 million (and if you take lump sum it's far less, plus the federal and state taxes you have to pay on the win) it just makes it hard... [ More ]

Reply #5

Chacha33 — Thu, 20 Mar 2014 18:42:31 GMT

As someone who's at the complete opposite end of the country, your Mass Lottery seems to have an excellent, diverse selection of instant tickets with fairly decent odds. The Keno payouts are even better than here in California. Our Lottery is recovering since the scratcher overhaul in 2010 (surprise our games payouts stunk and sales were pretty low), but we need better games. We could certainly take a page from the Massachusetts book.

Reply #4

shyguitar — Thu, 20 Mar 2014 17:30:50 GMT

Hi Spincognito,

Thanks for your reponse. It's great that you have won 500 dollars and a few 150 etc. I just only win the price of the ticket when I actually win on a scratcher. I'm still continuing to keep myself on my budget and that surely isn't going to help me win anything big, lol. That's great that you have strategies. I've mentioned before how hard it is to win that jackpot on a scratcher when there are over 7000 retailers that sell scratchers and being at the right place at the right... [ More ]

Reply #3

shyguitar — Thu, 20 Mar 2014 17:24:31 GMT

Hi ASja2002,

Thanks for your response. I have heard of that Ted's Stateline Mobil I think it's in Methuen? I'm not surprised to know there are some places that tend to have lots of lottery winners. The more tickets places sell the more likely they will have winners. I've been to a few places that post copies of the winning scratch tickets from their stores, yet when I play there I've never won anything, lol. You said the number of mid-level prizes has improved greatly but not for me. When I d... [ More ]

Reply #2

Spincognito — Thu, 20 Mar 2014 12:39:44 GMT

I play a lot and win occassionally. Mass overall payout is still tops in the country but there are tickets in other states that have better odds to win mid-level prizes such as $500. I have a fair amount of stategies that have worked throughout the years but still have not been able to happen upon that life-changing ticket. Within the past 6 months there have been two $1MILLION tickets sold in my town in stores that I frequent. Both were on the same $10 ticket.

I did hit 10K a coupla years ag... [ More ]

Reply #1

ASja2002 — Wed, 19 Mar 2014 21:03:56 GMT

Ted's Stateline Mobil (iirc) is one of the highest volume stores in Mass, as well as one of the highest payouts. While it is true that there are lesser grand prizes to be had, the number of mid-level prizes ($50-$500) has improved greatly. The top prizes on $1-$2 games have increased from $1,000-$5,000 and $10,000-$25,000 up to $10,000 avg. and $20,000-$100,000 respectively. I used to hit on $1 ticket for $100 prizes left and right, but I used to play a lot more and probably lost a lot more. Usu... [ More ]

How are people in Massachusetts doing with scratch tickets?

shyguitar — Wed, 19 Mar 2014 12:57:01 GMT

Hi everyone,

How are the people of Mass doing when it comes to scratchers? I've heard that Mass is supposed to be one of the top states for high percentages of payouts for winners. Over the past 3 years of playing scratchers I've only won 200 dollars on a 20 dollar ticket and twice won 100 dollars on 5 dollar tickets. The rest of the time I've lost or just broken even on tickets. Over the past 7 months I've been playing scratchers far less and when I do buy a ticket I buy one and if I win I l... [ More ]