There’s a dirty secret behind lottery scratchers: for some of those scratchoff tickets you see behind the counter, the top prize is already missing from the number of remaining tickets in circulation.
The Virginia Lottery does post the number of remaining tickets and the odds of winning prizes on its website. That information is crucial for buyers like you, because you can use it to focus your money on the VA Lottery scratchers with the best odds. We take that data and provide you a ranked list of scratchers with the best odds to use as a tool. And in fact, the VA Lottery indicates on its website when there are no top prizes available, as well as the start and end dates of a game. We also make sure you see this info on our list.
But do you see that information when you spot the tickets on display behind the counter. NO! Just big flashy announcements of the top prizes on the ticket faces. Even if the chances are miniscule – you must pull out your phone and check the website to see whether you’ve got a chance at all.
The Game Goes On
This is not new. In 2008, an associate professor of business and finance at Washington and Lee University in Roanoke, VA, Scott Hoover, examined the numbers. Hoover determined that the rate of $75,000 top prizes for one scratcher game weren’t being bought at the rate dictated by laws of statistics. After filing a FOIA request, he figured out that the Virginia Lottery sold 26.5 million scratcher tickets worth $85 million over five years after the top prizes had been claimed.
Hoover sued Virginia Lottery, accusing the Lottery of contract violations. He asked to be a “virtual representative” for everyone who bought the improperly sold tickets and demanded the Lottery issue reimbursements. Unfortunately for all of us, the Richmond Circuit Court judge eliminated other scratcher purchasers from the suit, and later denied the appeal.
Retailers Not Stopped from Selling When Game Ends
At the time, the Virginia Lottery Executive Director said that “we want our players to know that the scratch tickets at retailers have top prizes.” She also said, “Once we know that last prize is claimed we immediately end the game.”
The game may have “ended,” but that didn’t mean the store clerk wouldn’t sell you the scratcher ticket. Little has changed since then. The Virginia Lottery’s Retailer Manual tells retailers that:
Occasionally the final top prize in a Scratcher game will be claimed before the game has sold out. When
this happens, you will receive a message via the online terminal letting you know to stop selling this
game immediately. You must pull any remaining unsold tickets from your inventory and hold them for
your sales representative to pick up. You will receive credit for any unsold, unscratched tickets.
Note that it’s up to the retailer to pull the remaining scratchers from their shelves. No buzzer goes off when you point at that game. If the store clerk didn’t say anything, or didn’t know to say anything, then you’ll buy the ticket without any warning that you’ve got no chance at the top prize.
Don’t Always Bank on the Top Prize
That doesn’t mean there’s not value in buying the scratcher game even if the top prizes aren’t possible. The odds of top prizes are usually one in millions, but look at all the prizes and the odds can be considerably better.
For example, with the $30 game “Millionaire Maker” the VALottery.com site says $1 million top prizes have all been claimed. However, when you calculate the odds from the remaining prizes, you still have a 1 in 4.30 chance at a prize earning you more than the $30 you spent on the ticket!
So pay attention more to the overall odds. Much as we want the $1 million top prize, catching one or more of the smaller prizes of $100, $500, or $1,000 will bank you profits and also provide some more cash for other scratcher games.
