Cash 3 can be a great game to play. Instead of buying a $600 roll try this: pick a single number (0-9) and combo everything associated with that number without repeating. That's a total of 55 combinations. (18) Combinations will involve either your number (x) and two of the same numbers (y,y), or two of your selected number (x,x) with a different number (y). (36) Combinations will involve your number with two different numbers (x,y,z). (1) combination will be just your number (x,x,x).
Using this strategy costs $271-
18 * $3 = $54
36 * 6 = $216
1 * 1 = $1
Thus, if you pick the number "0" and it comes in at all, you win $500. I believe this gives you a 1/10 chance to win $500. If it doesn't come in, think of it this way. If you had bought a $600 roll of scratchers and it paid out $330/$600 (which is better than the normal minimum payout of $245/$600). you're pretty much in the same place.
You could also use this strategy on Pick 2. Here if you pick a single number, it costs $19 to cover ($18) for (x,y) (y,x) and $1 for (x,x). Here you could spend $190 to cover ten times and if your selected number comes in, you win $500. Again, I think you've reduced the odds of winning $500 to 1/10. And if it doesn't come in, well that was just the equivalent of what might have been an ok $600 roll of scratchers.
This might be a good fallback strategy for some like EMTAdam and Dracos when the current scratchers situation start to deteriorate.
I've used this method before and have won 3 times with it and they're my biggest lottery wins have come from Pick 3, yet I never seem to follow up with it despite it paying out good. Sometimes I try to stratergize by looking to see what single number is overdue. For example, in Pick 3, 35 numbers have been picked since the last time the number "3" was selected back on Jan 8, but I've actually seen droughts go way, way back for weeks especially with the number "8".