What are the Odds of Winning Scratch-Offs? 2024 PA Guide

What is a Scratch Off?

Scratch-offs, also known as scratchers, scratch tickets, and scratch cards, are games of chance in which players must physically remove a special UV ink to reveal whether or not they have won the game. Scratch-off games vary massively in theme, price, and prize, but all follow the same core concept.

Scratch-offs are printed in a limited number and each contains a predetermined number of winning and losing tickets. In the industry, these print runs are usually what are referred to as packs. Given this, your favorite scratcher may not always be available.

Online Scratchers

It’s worth understanding the difference between the scratchers you can buy from a store and those found on the PA Lottery website. Online scratch cards typically offer varying purchase values of anywhere between $0.05 to $30.00, with the rewards scaled to that amount. These scratchers are designed to be played through quickly and often have an auto-play option.

Online scratchers in PA are entirely based on random number generators (RNG) and don’t have a set number of winners for top prizes, but usually incorporate a progressive jackpot system like those found on some online jackpot slots. The top prize keeps increasing for each scratcher purchased until a winner is picked, after which the jackpot resets to its minimum amount.

Interestingly, in 2018, new online casinos in PA actually tried to stop the state lottery from selling online scratchers as they believed the concept was too similar to slot machines, of which the casinos hold exclusive rights. The lawsuit ultimately failed, and online scratchers are still available.

Always Check Available Prizes on Physical Scratchers

As physical scratchers have limited numbers and predetermined prizes, the top prizes, including any jackpots, may have already been won, drastically reducing the RTP of the scratcher and removing what many believe is the main draw of the game.

Thankfully, the PA Lottery site generally displays how many of the top six prizes have not been claimed. This is really important to check as if you buy a scratcher boasting a million-dollar jackpot, and all of those million-dollar jackpots have already been won, you have zero chance of winning it.

📌 To check how many prizes are left on your scratcher, find it on the PA Lottery site, or type the name of the card plus PA lottery into Google.

Again, this does not apply to online scratchers, which use a random number generator.

Understanding Your Chance of Winning

Physical scratchers have the odds of winning a game printed on the back of the card, which is correct on the first day of printing before any tickets have been sold or prizes claimed. This number is usually presented as a ratio such as 1:4.62, which simply means a 1 in 4.62 chance of taking any prize at all. The odds of winning vary with each game.

❗ While it is impossible to calculate the odds of winning any prize when a pack is active, the longer a pack is on sale and no jackpots have been claimed, the higher chance you have of winning the jackpot.

Scratchers aren’t sold until they run out, though. Sometimes the scratcher will be pulled early, so while waiting for lower prizes to be used up may be a good scratch off strategy, it doesn’t always pay to wait.

What are the Odds of Winning with Online Scratchers?

Online scratchers work differently. With their random number generators, the odds of winning are instead expressed using an RTP %, or return-to-player percentage. If you bet $1 on a game with a 90% RTP, on average, over many games, you are likely to walk away with 90 cents for every dollar wagered. 90% seems to be about the average for PA iLottery scratchers.

How to Win at Scratch Offs

If you have a friend who claims to know how to win scratch offs every time, they’re probably lying. The fact is, as scratchers are pre-determined at the point of printing, the only way to win is to buy a card and try your luck. While a scratch ticket strategy like checking the jackpots as discussed above is a good idea, nothing will lead you to winning all the time.

❗ If you really want to know how to win at scratch offs, learn how the game is played so you don’t mess up and accidentally throw away a winning ticket. Read and understand the rules of the game before scratching any of the ink, know what you are looking out for, and understand what’s going on. Scratchers can be quite complicated, so it’s worth taking your time here.

While you won’t know how to pick winning scratch off tickets unless you have laser-vision, all scratchers include a barcode which the cashier will scan when you claim you have a winning ticket. There’s little bother in asking them to scan your already-scratched tickets to check if you missed a winner.

Are Scratchers Worth the Money?

So, are scratch-off tickets worth buying? Many find it somewhat exhilarating to scratch off potentially life-changing prizes, and if that’s your thing, it could be worth it!

In terms of RTP and your chances of walking away with a profit, online scratchers typically offer more value than physical ones, as there are fewer overheads to manage, though you may not find them as fun.

As always, stick to what you enjoy and when it stops being fun, stop scratching!