Are Scratch Offs Worth Playing
Today I want to talk about how to play a scratch-off. Andwhy you should play it the RIGHT WAY.
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First up. Scratchers are NOT games of skill. You cannot winmore on them by being 'better at playing scratchers'.
This comes as a big surprise to some people.
And yes, this does apply to all scratch-off tickets. Even theones that 'seem' to have an element of skill. So it doesn'tmatter if it is a crossword, Monopoly, word search, pokeror whatever!
How do scratchers work?
Every ticket is either a 'win' or 'lose' the moment you buy it.It does not matter who plays it.
Now there may be some element of skill or knowledge inUNDERSTANDING if you have won (and yes, there are ways to work out what are the best scratch offs to buy). But you cannot loseby being bad at playing. And you cannot win more by beinggood at playing.
Hopefully that's clear :-)
Make sure you get the whole story - get all my free tips with how to win lottery scratch offs from here.
So technically you don't even need to know how to play scratch off tickets - or even play the game. Youcan just hand the ticket over to the assistant and ask themto scan it, and tell you if you've won.
Maryland Scratch Offs
But please do NOT do that!
That's not the best way. Play the game as it was meant to be played.
For 2 very good reasons.
[1] Would you normally hand a blank signed check over toa total stranger..? :-)
That ticket could be a jackpot winner. So blindly handingit over without having any idea what it's worth is not a goodidea.
Think this isn't a problem? Just have a read of some of thecomments on my blog post here. It is pretty shocking.
Of course, the vast majority of shop assistants are really nicehonest people. Who would just be happy for you that you won.But some are not. So why chance it?
Yes, you could (and should), put your name and sign the backof the ticket before handing it over... but...
[2] Part of the reason to play lottery games is the fun element.It's the buzz of finding out if you have won, and how much.
How do you win scratch off tickets? Firstly - one of the 'secrets' is to play it as it was meant to be played!
If you actually play the game instead of just scanning it, you get some real entertainment value foryour money. That way, even losing tickets are never really losers :-)
Why not go even further. Take your time playing it. Scratchjust one symbol at a time. See how close you are getting toa win before you scratch the next one.
If you buy multiple tickets in one go, don't play them all atonce. Spread them out over a day.
I know someone who spends a whole day playing a singleticket. She loves playing. And gets massive value out of herhobby - and when she wins on one (and she does win), what a massive BONUS!
Now that's how to play the scratch off lottery :-)
What If I Don't Understand The Game?
This happens. Some games are quite complicated. There arelots of ways to win, different games within a ticket, or confusingwin conditions.
Bottom line - if you don't understand it, either get the assistantto explain it to you fully before you scratch it. Or avoid thatticket in future, and only buy the ones you do fully understand.
Read More Scratch Tips:
It's THE most important decision you can make. If you choose the wrong ones, you seriously hurt your chances of winning. Here's how to find the best scratch off tickets to play.
It's NOT:-
- the newest one
- the shiniest one
- or the one the retailer wants to sell you!
It's also not '3 of these, 2 of those, er, one of the crosswordones, and er, how much do I have left..?' (Are you guilty ofthis? When you only went in to buy a loaf of bread..?)
You can throw money away on scratchers. OR you can buythe ones that are most likely to have you walk away with alife changing sum.
Which would you prefer? ;-)
OK, So What Are The Best Scratchers To Buy?
You need to know 2 things:-
[1] Only play the games with 'big enough' prizes.
What is 'big enough'..? That's up to YOU - because enough tobe life changing varies from person to person. For most peoplethis means you should never play the cheapest tickets. Ever.
Why? Because you have to win again, and again, and againto reach that position of a life changing win. Yourodds of winning over and over are far worse thanjust aiming for the right prize in the first place!
[2] Which scratch off tickets have the best odds?
| Ticket Price | Best Odds? |
|---|---|
| Scratchers Best Odds | |
| $1-$2 | No |
| $5 | Better |
| $10-$20 | Best (see below) |
| $30-50 | Best (see below) |
There's more to this though - it's not just the best overall odds OR even about the best jackpot odds.
What you really need to know is which ticket is best TODAY.That's because the odds change all the time as tickets are sold, and prizes are won.
And there's more to figuring this out than you might think. There's even a niceformula we can use. (But there's also, potentially, a massive shortcut, whichI'll get to in just a moment!)
You may have already heard the tip to 'only play games withlots of big prizes remaining'?
It's a decent tip. (i.e. don't be that person blindly playing agame where all the big prizes have already gone - this happens a lot!)
But you can do a lot better than this!
Most lottery companies in the US give out some fairly detaileddata on scratchers. It's right there on their websites. Sometimeshidden away, but it is there.
What we can do with this data is figure out at any given timewhich are the best scratchers to buy today. Not by the odds when thosegames started. But by the odds TODAY. Based on how manytickets have been sold. And how many prizes have been won.Both big AND small prizes.
That's a big deal, because this 'ratio' approach tells you whichgames have most winning tickets left OVERALL. It tells youwhich games have a higher percentage of winners versus losers.
So you simply avoid the games with the worst win ratios, andonly play the ones with the best win ratios. The result - you willbuy more winning tickets.
It takes a little extra effort, but it's worth it.
IMPORTANT: These tips are part of a much bigger series. Make sure you get all of them by entering your email here: how to win at scratch offs (it's totally free, I just got fed up with all the terrible advice out there!)
p.s. the link opens in a new tab/window so you can do it now and not lose your place here. I can wait... ;-)
How To Work Out For Yourself
Which Are The Best Scratchers To Buy
If you like messing around in spreadsheets, you can calculatethis stuff for yourself. (But that super easy shortcut is below ifthis sounds like hard work..! Note: it's only currently available to those in the USA though, sorry.)
Firstly you need to find where they keep all the scratchers data.Head for your lottery companies official website, and startdigging. You may find a nice table, but more likely you will needto dig in to the details of each ticket available one at a time.
What you want to do is make up a spreadsheet of all this data.That is, the ticket name, price, number of top prizes, top prizesremaining, number of other prizes and other prizes remaining.
Are Scratch Offs Worth Playing This Week
You might also want to store the date the ticket went on sale,and how much the major prize amount is too.
The formula you then want to apply is basically this:-
(top prizes remaining / number of top prizes)
divided by
(other prizes remaining / number of other prizes)
Are Scratch Offs Worth Playing Today
This 'ratio' gives you a useful figure to compare games. Thehigher that number is the better.
It is vital however to keep updating this data regularly. Everyweek is fine. But leaving it a month can turn the best scratch ticketinto one of the worst.
What's The Super Easy Shortcut?
The easy way to do this is to just get Dave's reports. He runs aservice that does all this number crunching for you. And it's aridiculously cheap $20 for a whole year. For that you get a freshup to date report every week specially for your own state.
Even if you only buy 1 scratcher a week it's a no-brainer at thatcrazy cheap price (just don't tell Dave I said that!)
This option is currently only available to players in the USA though. If you're not in the US, all is not lost, you'll just have to put in a little manual effort and DIY it - here's how.
IMPORTANT: To make sure you don't miss any of my scratchers tips, head over here now. Put all of these into place and it can make a serious difference to your chances of scratching a big winner.
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