How to Win Scratch Off Tickets – Top 9 Secrets to Help You Win

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Last Updated: October 4, 2023

Checked by: Zvonimir Potocki

Written by: Ivan Potocki

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Scratch off cards are a fun and exciting way to try your luck without getting too invested like with some other games.

And while you probably already know that a strategy on how to win scratch offs every time does not exist, you probably don’t know that there are some strategies that you can implement to put yourself in the best position to win.

Today we break down these strategies to help you increase your scratch of chances and talk about scratch off ticket secrets.

9.  Don’t Go For the Cheapest Scratch Cards

Let's start with one of the easiest ways to increase your chances for bigger rewards when buying scratch cards: avoiding the cheap ones.

If you don’t buy scratch cards regularly, or you do, but you didn’t put a lot of thought into it, it might be tempting to go for the cheapest ones.

After all, you are risking the minimum with this strategy.

However, you should know that the main reason why the cheapest scratch cards are so affordable is because they have the lowest prize pool.

Scratch cards in the price range of $5 and below have a lower percentage of winners, smaller rewards, and a smaller difference between prizes.

On the other hand, more expensive scratch cards are the complete opposite. They have a higher percentage of winners, more evenly spread higher payouts, and almost always a higher jackpot reward.

This means, that you might have a higher percentage of paying scratch cards if you go for the cheaper ones, but the average and the top prizes will be much lower.

With the more expensive scratch cards, you will win less often, but the prizes will be much bigger.

So, the next time you decide to try your luck with scratch cards, if your budget is $10, you should go for one scratch card that costs $10 or two scratch cards that cost $5 instead of buying 10 scratch cards that cost $1 each.

8. How to Win Scratch Offs: Get Familiar With the Odds

Another of the scratch off lottery ticket secrets is knowing what game you are playing. By this, we mean understanding the odds you are getting with a specific scratch card.

Each scratch has its own odds which you can easily find out, but the important thing is to understand how to use these odds to determine which scratch cards you should buy depending on your play style.

For example, some scratch cards might have better odds of winning, but a lower jackpot and vice versa. This has a big impact on the value of the tickets.

If you are buying scratch cards in a bulk, it might be better to go with the ones that are slightly cheaper but have better odds.

On the other hand, if you are buying only one or just a few tickets, you are better off with those that have worse odds but higher rewards.

7. Read the Small Print

Just like when you are taking a loan or signing any kind of contract, you should always read the small print on your scratch card tickets before buying them.

The main reason why you should go through this step every time you buy a ticket is so you can get familiar with the odds you are getting.

This is very important, because when you are gambling, no matter how much the results of the game are luck dependent, you should always know what odds and Return to Player you are getting.

Odds on scratch cards are usually displayed as 1:10 or 1:20, and it is important to know how to interpret these odds.

In this case, one in ten does not mean that if you buy 10 tickets you are guaranteed that one of them will be a winner.

Instead, it means that one in ten tickets will be a winner when you take into account all of the tickets printed in that series.

6. Buy In Bulk if There Haven’t Been Any Winners

Choosing machines that haven’t had any recent winners is a tactic that most slots players use. However, this is even more viable strategy when it comes to scratch cards.

This secret on how to win scratch offs is very popular with experienced ticket buyers. New players are often unfamiliar with the tactic of buying scratch tickets in bulk if the store where the tickets are sold hasn’t had any recent winners.

With this approach, it is recommended to buy more tickets at once rather than buy fewer tickets on multiple trips to the store.

This is because manufacturers usually have a number of winning tickets that they always place in one bunch, so with each losing ticket, the odds for the next ticket to be a winning one increase.

So, if you know that there weren’t any recent winners at your local store, you should increase your chances by buying scratch cards in bulk.

5. Get Information from the Seller About Recent Winners

After our last tip on how to win scratch offs, you might be confused and wondering how can you find out if your local store had recent winners.

Well, one of the ways is to spend more time at your local store and track winners (and yes, we know how ludicrous this sounds). Don’t worry, though, this is not something we recommend.

Instead, one of the best ways to find out what you are looking for is to ask the seller about it.

If you are buying scratch cards in a store where you don’t know the seller, we recommend that you get into a subtle conversation with the goal of finding if there were any recent winners.

One of the easiest ways to do this is to start a random conversation about big winners or recent winners in another location and see if the seller is willing to talk about recent winners that they had on their location.

If you are an introvert, this might be well beyond your comfort zone, so just keep that in mind and decide if awkward conversations are worth the information.

4. How to Win Scratch Offs: Don’t Throw Away Old Tickets

This is one of the scratch off lottery ticket secrets that a lot of players are aware of, but most people implement it for one of two main reasons, and here we will mention both.

The first reason why you should hold on to your losing tickets is to bring them with you the next time you go ticket buying and give it to your seller to check them one more time in the system.

By doing this, you leave no room for mistakes or wrong interpretation of the ticket, something that happens more than you think.

So the next time, you feel you are out of luck with your tickets, leave them in a safe place and check them one more time.

The second reason why you shouldn’t throw away your old scratch cards is if there is a running jackpot that is awarded based on the number of tickets.

If you lose one of these tickets you could cost yourself much more money than if you threw a winning ticket with an average prize.

*Bonus tip: You can save your old tickets so that you have better insights into how much money you spent on your scratch card hobby in a certain period of time. This is a great way to prevent spending too much money on tickets and allow your hobby to get out of hand.

3. Manage Your Bankroll

Okay, this strategy won’t directly increase your chances of winning, but it will give you a stable structure that will allow you to stay in the game longer and the thug gives you more shots at that grand prize of the jackpot.

You might think that managing your bankroll is only important in betting, poker, or similar gambling games.

Make no mistake, although it might not seem like it, scratch cards are also one form of gambling.

And when there is luck involved, you should be extra careful not to get too emotional and spend more than you can afford.

Having a bankroll and tracking your wins and losses is a great way to stay on top of things, and keep your hobby enjoyable.

2. Scratch Off Lottery Ticket Secrets: Avoid Promotions

Avoiding promotions is one of the best scratch off ticket secrets that you can be aware of because it will save you a ton of money.

Unlike sports betting, casino, or poker, where promotions can give a boost to your bankroll, scratch cards promos will do the opposite.

Companies that sell scratch cards create promotions that consist of buying ticket bundles at a discounted price only when they know that the top prizes for those ticket series have been paid out.

This means, that by buying discounted bundles of scratch card tickets, you are just buying tickets that have low prizes.

1. Use The Singleton Method

Another well-known secret in the scratch card community is the Singleton method. It might sound like a method or a theory from physics or math, but, in fact, it is a method that scratch card players use to detect winning tickets.

The Singleton method is a scratch card method in which players analyze the print on the left of the ticket, right beside the actual scratch, and look for patterns that might suggest a winning ticket.

Although most scratch card companies are aware of this method and have changed the way they print their tickets, there are still some manufacturers that don’t pay attention to this, making the Singleton method pretty viable.

A good idea is to do some research and find out which manufacturers still haven’t adapted and search for their tickets next time you are in the store.

Final Thoughts on How to Win Scratch Offs

While it may seem that certain areas of life are governed by completely random rules, this isn’t always the truth.

Even areas like the gambling industry, where most things are completely based on luck, have evolved so far that there are methods you can use to put yourself in the best position to win.

We hope that these top tips on how to win scratch offs will help you increase your chances of success. While scratch cards are entirely based on luck, every little piece of information helps, and it certainly can’t hurt!