All you would need to beat scratchoffs is to know the number of tickets sold

Reply #8

jimjwright — Thu, 11 Sep 2014 02:30:52 GMT

Idaho lottery tells you how many prizes are unclaimed and how many sold.

Idaho scratchers unclaimed

Idaho scratchers sold

Does not increase your odds but it is good information to know.

I don't know if this practice still exists but in Texas at one time the algorithm for distributing tickets was the following:

https://www.lotterypost.com/news/277617

A computerized system tracks packs or books of tickets being activated and prizes being cashed. When a store's stock gets low, tic... [ More ]

Reply #7

Scratch$ — Wed, 10 Sep 2014 15:59:42 GMT

There's no sure thing , period. However, there are some people more successful than others.

Virtually all the scratch masters who've won multiple major prizes, rely on the buy as many as you can as often as you can method. Not rocket science, but effective in many cases. The woman in Texas who won 4 million+ top prizes would go in stores and buy scratchers by the roll.

Reply #6

Scratch$ — Wed, 10 Sep 2014 07:03:42 GMT

I prefer scratchers also, and have done reasonably well with them.

As for jackpot games, Powerball pissed me off when they raised their ticket price to two dollars, and I also didn't like it when Mega Millions increased the range of game numbers to 75. Thankfully Cash 5 hasn't been screwed up yet.

Reply #5

luckyladie — Wed, 13 Aug 2014 13:03:16 GMT

I used to be against playing the lottery until I won a few dollars. I was really happy about winning $20 or $100 here and there. Most of the times, there. Anyway, over the course of time I felt I needed to try at least once to buy a whole pack of tickets. Yes! I spent $300 on the $20 tickets. My total winnings came up to $150 or maybe a few dollars less. The area didn't seem like a place that was unlikely to have a $1million jackpot prize because their are really nice homes located near there. I... [ More ]

Reply #4

RJOh — Fri, 08 Aug 2014 20:13:40 GMT

A few years ago I read about a guy who sued the Illinois lottery because he read that a number of major prizes in a scratch-off games weren't payout out yet and he brought as many of the unsold scratch-offs as he could find figuring he couldn't lose money but he did and was pissed. I never read how his case turned out but I suspect he lost again because he wasn't the first player to figure out how to beat the lottery that came up short. As the saying goes figures don't lie but liars and fools fi... [ More ]

Reply #3

LottoMetro — Fri, 08 Aug 2014 06:24:07 GMT

My signature has my actual, up-to-date lottery playing stats....as you can see, I am not really beating it. I am up for this year but I've only played a small sample. Interestingly, almost all of my losing tickets are drawings. I tend to do quite well with scratchers.

I'm beating the lottery's advertised payout percentage so I guess that is better than random play

I get what you're saying though....any improvement is better than nothing. Like right now, there's a game with advertised top... [ More ]

Reply #2

carolinacrown24 — Fri, 08 Aug 2014 06:17:07 GMT

good points here. But it depends on what your definition of the word beat is my definition is to come out ahead over the long run maybe averaging 10 dollars a month on x number of dollars spent. In the long run would/will it pay off, probably not but having a 0.00001% better shot of winning a mill. or more is still good with me, and finding out the number of tickets sold vs. claimed will help you win more. if you have a large enough bank roll/ collective bank roll it can help. In the end Will it... [ More ]

Reply #1

LottoMetro — Fri, 08 Aug 2014 06:00:13 GMT

I have used this strategy for several years, since (all?) lotteries will happily provide such information through freedom of information requests. (Heck, in a recent Philly news story series, a lottery even gave them the pack numbers and locations for all the remaining packs in the game! Talk about confidence of security!)

I wouldn't say it's a waste of time, but the improvement in odds is negligible and maybe once per year will a game actually be a good bet. Even in those cases, there is usu... [ More ]

All you would need to beat scratchoffs is to know the number of tickets sold

carolinacrown24 — Fri, 08 Aug 2014 05:50:07 GMT

I was thinking today that all you would need to know is the number of tickets sold on a particular game and you could figure out if the odds were better or worse than expected given the number of total tickets and the number of claimed prizes... I sort of relate it to counting playing cards in blackjack, you could figure out if a particular game was either hot, ( more % winners or higher value winners) or as in blackjack( higher the number of tens and faces left in the deck and thus more prone t... [ More ]