How To Buy Scratch Offs

Scratch-Offs are distributed at random, meaning the Pennsylvania Lottery and its retailers do not know where winning tickets will be sold. We learn that only after a prize has been claimed. As would be expected with random distribution, regions with larger numbers of players tend to have a proportionate ratio of players winning. Recent Scratch-Off Winners. Leslie Fayard Holden Dec 22, 2020 Prize: $15,000 Game: Snowball Buck$ Spencer Russell Hammond Sep 18, 2020 Prize: $1,000 Game: Cash Frenzy. Brenda Kay Collins Deville Sep 10, 2020 Prize: $15,000 Game: Wild Cash Clarence Thomas.

Scratch offs have come a long way since their inception in the 1970s. First created for the Massachusetts lottery by John Koza and Dan Bower, what was once a major chance is now a staple at grocery store and liquor store checkouts.

Did you know that you don’t have to leave your home to win $1 million (or more) on a scratch-off? Yes, you can buy scratch tickets online, and they’re legal, real, and have actual monetary prizes.

In this blog post, we’ll be discussing some of the best places to buy scratch off tickets online, making sure you’re only buying legit scratch offs. Read on for more!

Are You Sure Online Scratch Offs Are Legit?

Yes! However, this is a fair question. We’ve all been minding our business scrolling, only to be accosted by a random ad telling us we’ll be millionaires if online we give up all of our information.

Sure, some of these online scratch offs may be phishing schemes or a scheme in which a scammer claims to need your information for something and runs away with sensitive details. With phishing schemes, you never get what you’re promised. If a website looks too good to be true, it likely is.

Knowing where to purchase online scratch offs is the best way to ensure you don’t fall prey to these schemes, and any prizes you win are legitimate.

Playing Country or State-Sanctioned Scratch Offs

One way to know that the scratch offs you’re playing online are legit is that they’re country or state-sanctioned. For example, the United Kingdom has an entire website, Lottoland, dedicated to these online scratch offs. You can even support UK charities like the British Red Cross by purchasing these tickets and dipping your toes into the scratch-off waters.

Scratch offs sanctioned by particular countries doesn’t end with the UK, though. In fact, there are several states in the United States where you can purchase lotto tickets, for bigger wins or draw games, as well as for instant wins.

The following states have online “scratch offs” where you can win instantly:

To play these online scratch offs, you’ll need to head over to their official websites.

How Much Can You Win with State Official Scratch Offs?

How much you can win with these scratch offs depends on each state and its rules. Georgia, for example, offers online tickets where you can instantly win up to $150,000. The state of Michigan, in contrast, has games in which you can win up to $500,000 instantly.

Can You Enter More Than One State’s Online Scratch Off?

It can certainly seem tempting to buy as many online scratch offs as possible and hedge your bets. After all, what’s stopping you from buying a scratch-off in Virginia, Georgia, and Pennsylvania? The law is, actually.

Unfortunately, you have to be located in the state in order to play and claim any winnings–just like you would be if you purchased a scratch-off in person.

You can usually claim up to a certain amount online, and then you must appear in person if your loot is in excess of that.

State-sanctioned scratch offs will have technology employed to ensure that you are purchasing your ticket within that state itself and to detect any kind of VPN to spoof your location.

What Are Online Lotto Subscriptions?

Many states also offer an online lotto subscription service, which you can manage via the Internet. These, however, are different from scratch offs, and it doesn’t mean that you’ll be receiving a certain amount of scratch offs each month.

These subscription services give you an entry each week into bigger prize drawings, allowing you to pay in advance. You can choose how many tickets you want to buy at a time.

Do not mistake this for scratch offs, as you will not win instantly.

Other Online Slots and Scratch Offs

Online scratch offs are not only available from specific countries or states, but you can also play them via virtual casinos and websites or apps dedicated to winning big instantly. As we stated above with the prevalence of phishing schemes and other hacking operations, you’ll need to be sure you’re playing legitimate games or apps.

IGT or International Gaming Technology is one of the most well known when it comes to gambling and online winning. These scratch offs and slots can be played both online and off, and are supported by most casinos.

Some of the most trusted online gambling sites including the official websites of well-known casinos themselves, like Harrah’s, as well as Chumba Casino and Lucky Land. Most of these are not necessarily online scratch-offs but operate as an almost hybrid of a slot machine and a scratch-off. Like their “real life” based counterparts, they pay off with money instantly.

Figuring Out Where to Buy Scratch Off Tickets Online

If you’re a gambling newbie or have never taken your game online before, it can seem overwhelming to know which games to pick. Figuring out where to buy scratch off tickets online can seem like you’re trying to pick out the real tickets from the faux without much context.

Hopefully, however, this article has helped give you some confidence on which games are real and can give you an instant payout.

Ready to purchase your online scratch cards? Hold off for just a little bit longer and read some of our strategies for winning scratch offs before you take the plunge!

Who wouldn’t want to know how to win scratch offs, right?

We all want to win the lottery!

Scratch off cards can be pretty frustrating. You think that you’re onto a winner and then you see the card is a loser.

So is there any way to increase your odds of winning scratch offs?

You’ll be glad to know that there are definitely things you can do to win.

These are pretty simple things too! So whether you are a gamble often or just buy scratch offs or lottery tickets to hopefully hit the jackpot or win the Powerball, once in a while, you can use these tips.

In this post, I’ll give you a few tips to increase your odds of winning on every scratch off ticket you buy.

Tips to Increase Your Chances of Winning Scratch Cards

Here are a few not so “secrets” you can use to win money on your next lottery scratch card.

1. Don’t purchase the cheapest scratchers

There are so many scratch cards out there nowadays that it can be pretty confusing to know which ones to buy. You sort of feel overwhelmed by all of the choices!

There are so many different designs, prices, prizes and brands available that it can be hard to decide which ones to purchase.

Thankfully, there’s a really easy tip you can use to make sure you purchase the right ones:

Don’t buy the cheapest scratch cards.

It can be tempting to purchase the most affordable ones; after all, you can get more of them for your money.

But these cards are cheap for a reason – the prize pool is lower.

You’d be better off purchasing just a few of the more expensive cards, rather than lots of the cheap ones. It’s quality over quantity basically.

2. Buy them in bulk

While the expensive cards are better, buying in bulk is still a good idea because it increases your chances of winning.

A lot of people swear by purchasing scratch cards in bulk. Consider purchasing a few scratch cards from the same game in a single trip to the shop, rather than just buying one scratch card.

Your odds of winning may increase if you purchase in bulk. It’s like with the lottery; the more entries you have, the more chances you have to win.

If you get a bunch of scratch cards in one purchase, then the chance of hitting one of those winning scratch cards may be higher.

This is a pretty easy way to up your chances of winning, so you may want to consider it. Don’t just buy any card in bulk though. Follow the rest of the tips in our article and combine those with buying in bulk to maximize your winnings.

I’d only recommend purchasing in bulk if your budget allows it – talking of which…

3. Make sure you set yourself a budget

I cannot recommend anything more highly when it comes to playing scratch cards than setting a budget.

It’s so important for your financial health.

Just as important as actually setting the budget though, is sticking with it. Be strict with your budget.

While this doesn’t increase your chances of winning, it does keep you from losing too much money.

Set yourself a weekly or monthly budget and make sure that you stick with it.

4. Check the odds before you buy

Like I said before, the amount of scratch cards out there nowadays is crazy. There are so many to choose from.

So how do you know which ones have the best odds?

As I also said earlier, purchasing the more expensive cards is a good option.

But another simple tip is to purchase the cards with the best odds, because, well, these give you the best chance of winning!

It’s not tough to find them either.

The odds are actually printed on the back of every ticket!

Really. You can even ask the cashier at the store to tell you what the odds are on the back of the tickets before you buy them. Choose the games that have better odds, and you’ll increase your chances of winning.

5. Check your state’s website

The last thing you’d want to do is purchase a ton of cards for a game only to learn that the biggest prizes have already been claimed.

How To Buy A Pack Of Scratch Offs

It’s completely legal to sell tickets for a scratch off game after all the top prizes have already been claimed.

That’s why I’d highly recommend checking to see if a game has had any prizes claimed before you make a purchase.

Some stores will post a flyer with the information, although sometimes this is weeks out of date.

The best way to make sure you’re not wasting your time on a game is to check with your state’s lottery website.

For example, I went on the Oregon state lottery website and viewed a scratch off game on there to see what prizes were left.

As you can see in the photo above, this Casino Gold game had two top prizes remaining. It lists the odds of winning too, which is handy!

To find your state lottery’s website, just open up Google, enter the term “[state name] lottery website,” and hit search.

I just entered the term “Oregon state lottery website,” for example.

If all of the top prizes for a game have been claimed, consider switching to a different one.

6. Keep your losing tickets

Keeping your losing tickets can be a good idea. This is because sometimes the manufacturer will run a second chance game where they ask for losing tickets to pick a best loser, so to speak.

Second chance drawings allow you to turn a non-winning ticket into another chance to win.

For example, at the time of writing, there were details of a second chance scratcher game on the Virginia state lottery website.

You could enter a non-winning ticket into the weekly eXTRA Chances drawing. The scratcher just had to have the eXTRA Chances logo on the front in order for it to be entered into the drawing. Prize themes change every month and, at the time, included gift cards, vacations, and concert tickets.

All you had to do was buy a scratcher with that logo and then if it was a losing ticket, you could either mail it to the Virginia Lottery or enter online with your non-winning ticket. Or you could use the app to enter the drawing.

How To Buy Scratch Offs In Bulk

Lots of states have second chance games like this.

So it’s worth checking with your state’s lottery website to see if there are any second chance games available.

Just as importantly though, keep hold of your losing tickets! You don’t have to spend any more cash, yet you get another chance to win.

7. Take in all of your losing tickets

Like I said above, you shouldn’t just throw out your losing cards and not only because of those second chance draws that I mentioned above.

No, another reason to not throw out a losing card is that it may not actually be a losing card.

There’s always a chance that you may have missed something on the ticket, which is why you should have your ticket officially checked.

You can have the computer at the retailer check the winnings to make sure that you haven’t missed anything. This way, you don’t throw away any winning cards!

It’s always worth doing, especially in games that have several different ways to win prizes because it can be easy to overlook winnings.

Get your ticket checked and you could win something!

8. Try the “Singleton” method

Next on the list is a tip that was used in the past by a lot of experienced scratch card players.

It’s called the “Singleton Method.”

This method involves looking at the numbers that are visible on a card before you purchase it. Basically, you analyze the card to see if you can pick up on any patterns that can indicate whether a scratch card has certain numbers, symbols, or combinations that could lead to you winning.

Now, this method isn’t really as useful as it once was because when the manufacturer’s caught on to the fact that people were analyzing the cards this way, a large number of them designed future cards to work against this method.

Still though, there may be a few manufacturers who have not yet taken steps to address this method. So you could still use it on the type of scratch cards that have numbers visible on the side.

It’s definitely an interesting theory. If you would like to learn more about how the singleton method works, then check out this guide from Casino.org.

9. Avoid package promotions

Another really useful tip I have is to avoid those “Mystery Packs” or other package promotions. This is because these promotional packages are often just a way for retailers to clear out their old stock. So they repackage older cards and then sell them in discounted ticket packages.

At first glance, it can seem like you’re getting a good deal. Who wouldn’t want discounted scratch cards, right?

In reality though, these packages are comprised of games in which the top winnings have already been claimed. This leaves you with little, if any, opportunities to win prizes yourself. It’s always best to focus on active games where there are still top prizes left to be won. That way, you have a better chance of actually winning.

10. Play them like the slots

Okay, this tip will only work if you have a lot of time on your hands and don’t mind doing some detective work, so to speak.

You’ve probably seen those people who hang around the slots waiting for someone to lose before swooping in to take that slot machine.

There’s even a Friends episode about it where Phoebe gets lurked by an older lady who always swoops in and wins right after Phoebe leaves her seat after a losing streak.

There is some science behind this method. Although the house always wins, as they say, slots do have to pay out at some point. And if a slot machine hasn’t paid off for somebody in hours, it’s likely that it will pay off for the next person who comes along.

Surprisingly, you can apply this same method to scratch cards.

Long streaks of losses can mean that your odds are better if you swoop in with a well-timed purchase.

So, how does this work with scratch cards, you ask?

Well, it’s pretty simple. Just try talking to the cashier at the store to get some information on which games have paid out recently and which ones haven’t.

Chances Of Winning Scratch Off

That way you can play the games that not many have won yet.

While this doesn’t guarantee that you will win, it may up your chances. After all, if someone earlier bought ten tickets and lost on them all, and you buy a few, there’s a better chance your tickets will win if those previous ones didn’t.

Similarly, if another game has had lots of winners, then you’ll know which ones have paid out already, and therefore, which ones to avoid.

How To Buy Scratch Off Lottery Tickets

So keep an eye on your competition.

Good Luck!

While there’s no magic formula for winning scratch cards, there are plenty of things you can do to improve your odds and make sure that you don’t miss out on any opportunities to win!

Remember though that you should always stick to your budget. You want to keep your finances intact.

Give our tips on how to win scratch offs a try and let us know in the comments section below whether you have any tips of your own!