Are Scratchers infinitely harder to win?

Reply #20

jaggudada — Mon, 19 Jan 2015 03:51:51 GMT

Draw lottery pays big prizes to top winners. Like 30, 50, 100, 400 million etc; therefore accordingly they have to sold that many tickets and that many losers! That's why chances of hitting big are very slim. Where as in scratchers, the prizes are comparatively small and they have lots of small prizes therefore it seems like people win more. I believe as a percentage of sale, draw lottery puts more money in kitty compare to scratchers.

Reply #19

Crazy Wombat — Sun, 18 Jan 2015 06:04:19 GMT

That's about all a person can really do ... check the odds and hope for luck. In my area there is an older guy who I see quite often at the self serve lottery machines ... he covers them all at various locations and he spends big bucks on the $20 tickets. I have talked a few times with him ... he stands at the machine scraping, cashing and buying more tickets ... anything with taxes to pay on he sticks in his back left pocket.

After seeing him around at different locations over the last 1 1/2... [ More ]

Reply #18

LottoMetro — Sun, 18 Jan 2015 02:04:05 GMT

I am a casual card counter yes, but I have never been thrown out of a casino

Like I said, it was a lot of work with not much to show for it except less variance which kept my drawdown low. But most of the time the lottery still has the edge. There has only been I think 2 or 3 instances in the last 3 years where I actually had a statistical advantage, and none of those opportunities resulted in a top prize win. Now I just monitor games for the best odds and play those whenever I have a few sp... [ More ]

Reply #17

gra8*2win — Sun, 18 Jan 2015 02:03:51 GMT

I knew a man that bought a whole book of scratch offs here in Tennessee, and won about 6 free tickets and close to

$150.00 dollars.......these were 5.00 scratch offs. i believe they are rigged, designed to just pay enough to entertain.

i just don't play them......

Reply #16

SafeCracker — Sun, 18 Jan 2015 01:21:33 GMT

I never saw a $1 or $2 scratch-off with that large a payoff. If you want to win something with a chance of it being $5000 or under, scratch-offs give a much better chance.

Neither have I. And the odds are those are just horrible. There was once a Reddit AMA where a guy that worked for a state's lottery was answering questions and he even referred to those as impulse buys. In fact, it was from him (her?) that I instituted my $10 minimum limit rule - that really turned things around for me... [ More ]

Reply #15

Stack47 — Sun, 18 Jan 2015 00:32:33 GMT

Dollar scratch-offs average around a 20% chance of winning something, $25 are around 36% compared to PB's 3.2% and MM's 6.8%. If the idea is to win $1 million, I never saw a $1 or $2 scratch-off with that large a payoff. If you want to win something with a chance of it being $5000 or under, scratch-offs give a much better chance.

Reply #14

Crazy Wombat — Sun, 18 Jan 2015 00:09:40 GMT

LM ... you wouldn't be that person that was thrown out of of the Casino for counting cards at the blackjack table, would you? ... working and keeping track of scratch off tickets in your head sure looks a little like card counting to me !!!

I would think there's a connection there somewhere ...

CW

Reply #13

Shelby Mustang — Sat, 17 Jan 2015 22:59:07 GMT

In the same week in my hometown we've had 2 guys win a million dollars each on 2 different scratchers.....whereas we havent had but a handful of powerball jackpot winners and 1 megamillions jackpot winner in the whole state since inception....i'd have to say its eaiser to win on the scratchers

Reply #12

LottoMetro — Sat, 17 Jan 2015 22:52:22 GMT

Like others have said, I ask the retailers how many they have been selling and I keep track of where I buy them, winners and losers, factor in store traffic (grocery store versus small out of the way gas station).

When I used to play a lot more than I do now, I would do the same thing. I used machines to avoid annoying clerks and since I came in every day or so I could memorize how many tickets had been sold since my last visit, then make projections for the next few days. Since I knew exactl... [ More ]

Reply #11

SafeCracker — Sat, 17 Jan 2015 20:56:13 GMT

Over the past few years, I've actually moved onto scratchers more. I rarely play the MM or PB anymore. (And I don't see myself playing the PB once the new rules go into effect this year.)

Here in Michigan, you can check how many scratchers are left for a game on the website. Plus the other draw games' odds are listed. A 1 in 4 scratcher is still better than a 1 in 10 draw game.

That said, I NEVER play any scratcher less than $10 (there are exceptions of course - there's a scratcher for $5... [ More ]

Reply #10

BobP — Sat, 17 Jan 2015 13:50:43 GMT

Only the Pick games allow you to create your own luck, to write your own winning ticket from anywhere the game can be played.

Scratch Offs are for fun, gifts, etc. win lower tier prizes. There may not be a scratch jackpot in the entire city.

BobP

Reply #9

maringoman — Sat, 17 Jan 2015 13:48:44 GMT

In Massachusetts more than 100 people won $1M or more in 2014 playing scratch offs. Only 15 won $1M or more playing draw type games.

Reply #8

Crazy Wombat — Fri, 16 Jan 2015 18:55:16 GMT

I agree ... all just pure luck

Reply #7

LottoMetro — Fri, 16 Jan 2015 18:52:28 GMT

You would still do better with the scratch-offs! Instead of looking at the prize OR odds, you have to look at the prize AND odds.

Spending $100 on MM only improves your odds to about 1 in 2.85 million, whereas spending the same amount on say a $20 scratcher would give you top prize odds of less than 1 in 500,000 (give or take). Yeah you won't walk away with hundreds of millions, but most people would be happy with several million. And because you're still very unlikely to win in either case,... [ More ]

Reply #6

Crazy Wombat — Fri, 16 Jan 2015 18:41:03 GMT

OK LM ... if the MM is at 10 or 15 million ... and I am ready to buy lottery tickets ... I'm standing there with $100 to spend, being that the MM jackpot is so low, I would maybe buy some scratch off tickets ... however, at a later date ... I'm back at lottery store with another $100 to spend and now the MM jackpot is $400 million, I pause and decide to throw the $100 at MM tickets.

Chances are very good that I will win nothing meaningful by buying scratch offs or Mega Millions tickets but as... [ More ]

Reply #5

LottoMetro — Fri, 16 Jan 2015 18:17:04 GMT

The largest top prize on a scratch off, I believe is either $15 million or $30 million. One of the New England lotteries if I'm not mistaken.

In regards to top prize odds, there are some draw games with better odds. But this doesn't help your wallet. You will do better in the long run playing games with better overall odds, while at the same time retaining that small chance of winning a jackpot. For instance, MM has odds of 1 in 14.7, but the worst $1 scratch-off in my state has odds of less... [ More ]

Reply #4

Crazy Wombat — Fri, 16 Jan 2015 17:57:50 GMT

OK ... I no longer play many scratch off tickets as I once did in the 80's and 90's ... used to buy books every so often ... but back then they didn't print as many tickets for a game as they do today. A book of $1 scratch off tickets was $500 in the 80's ... I think today they might be $300 a book ... but I am not 100% sure about that.

Anyway, speaking of odds between scratch offs and playing Mega Millions for example ... I am not taking issue with the fact that scratch offs have a higher pa... [ More ]

Reply #3

noise-gate — Fri, 16 Jan 2015 15:06:02 GMT

Tell you what G, the story is quite different out in CA, l can't begin to tell you how many times l have seen folks buy scratcher tickets, go to their trucks/cars and return within minutes with a hit ..It's possible that the payout is low but...

I for one am not interested in that game whatsoever- it is far too addictive from what I can tell.

Reply #2

LottoMetro — Fri, 16 Jan 2015 14:13:37 GMT

Scratchers have the best odds of winning and the best payouts. Try mixing up the locations where you purchase, or just look for games with better overall odds.

It is difficult to hit a jackpot in your state lotto drawing. It is likewise difficult to hit a jackpot on a scratcher. That's the nature of the lottery

Reply #1

cbr$ — Fri, 16 Jan 2015 08:45:23 GMT

I don't think scratchers are any harder to win then the other games. There are two things you can ask that may help in your selecting a great ticket, you ask the clerk, which tickets are the people returning to them the most which tickets are the newest in their line

Are Scratchers infinitely harder to win?

gogidolim — Fri, 16 Jan 2015 07:39:29 GMT

For the last 8 months, I spent a few hundred dollars on scratchers, mostly luck for life and 5 million dollar ones. Here's one thing I realized: You need to buy the winning ticket at a location that the ticket is located, which makes it really harder to win one because you never know where the winning tickets are.

This is why I decided to stick with jackpot lottos like MM and PB. They are cheaper and kinda more fun. Sure, the result is more instant with the scratchers, but they turn out to b... [ More ]