If you thought that your scratch-off lottery ticket was a loser because it didn’t have any winning number, then you might want to change your mind.

There are a lot of people who won manydifferent things because of their losing scratch-off ticket, and how is whatyou’re going to find out next.

• Lottery Scratch Off Scams: How To Avoid Getting Caught Out. There's something sneaky I want to make sure you guys are aware of. In the industry it's called 'pinning', and this scratch off scam can mean you miss out on a big winner without ever knowing about it.
• From Powerball, to Mega Millions, to Keno, to Lucky for Life, to Hot Lotto: come check out our full suite of lottery games, test your luck, and win today! AS OF MARCH 1, OUR SALES OFFICE IS OPEN FOR SELLING TICKETS OVER THE COUNTER AND CASHING PRIZES UNDER $600.
• Mail a completed Claim Form along with the signed ticket to the address on the form. Certain prizes must be claimed in person at Lottery headquarters in Middletown. These include a Powerball® or Mega Millions® jackpot prize; an annuity top or second-level prize for Cash4Life®, or an annuity prize for a Scratch-Off game.

The lottery isn’t just a win-or-lose game; it actually gives you a lot of chances to win even when you lose with your scratch-off lottery ticket.

Scratch tickets are produced and distributed using a completely random, double-blind system. First, the ticket vendor (printer) randomly scatters prizes throughout the game's entire print run using a random number generation system. No one, not the Lottery or even the ticket vendor, knows where the winning tickets are placed or when wins will.

If you don’t believe me, then let me tellyou these three words: the second chance lottery.

So if you’ve been wondering what to do withyour losing scratch-off lottery ticket, here’s your answer: KEEP IT.

You will need it in the second chancelottery.

Whatare second chance lotteries?

If you have never heard of a second chancelottery then today is your lucky day.

If you lose at the big game and didn’t haveany of the winning numbers, then you might have another chance at winning inthe second chance lottery.

Second chance lotteriesare bonus draws that give people higher chances and higher odds to win evenwith a losing ticket.

You get to enter the losing scratch-off lottery ticket or any losing lottery ticket in the drawing of the second chance lottery to win different prizes and different amount of cash even though you lost the first time.

Not every lottery company and state givesother people the chance to play another time to win, so they don’t offer thesebonus draws.

Whydoes the lottery offer second chances?

You might think it’s a scam so far, I meanwhy would the state offer you a second chance of winning?

Why would they risk losing more money?

Well, simply, because whatever you win, thestate wins more.

Keeping the process of lottery going longerhelps the state win more revenue and more money overall.

If the state stops the lottery on the firstround once someone wins, there will be no more tickets sold, no more revenueraking in, and no more money for the state.

Second chance lotteries help the state sellmore tickets by convincing people that they can still win large prizes and a bigamount of cash, and the more they sell, the more the state wins.

Even if the secondary lottery games don’toffer big prizes, people still get motivated to take part of them and buy moretickets with the extended drawing period, some people still participate to wineven points for gift cards or small prizes.

And, since you get to pay taxes on everyticket you buy, that means even more money for the state at the end of thelottery.

Whatare the odds of you winning?

In a lottery, your chances of winning arevery slim, even slimmer to none, if you get to pick 6 numbers out of 49numbers, your chances of winning are 1 in 12,983,816 for the jackpot.

Which means that winning in a normallottery is chance of 1 shot in 13 million, and some other lotteries have evenworse case scenarios which mean, lower odds of winning.

But, the good news is that in second-chancelotteries you’ve got higher chances in winning.

Why is that?

Simply because there are a lot of peoplewho don’t even know about second chances in the first place, and even thoughsome people know, they don’t even bother participating because they’re lackingthe thrill of the biggest prize.

Because of all these factors,you’ve got higher chances in winning the second chance lottery than you do inthe first one.

In some states, an online list ofprizes is provided which shows the odds of winning them depending on how manyentries that have been received.

So if you live in one of thesestates, checking your odds will help you determine where to put your money in.

In which states you get a second chance lottery?

If you’re convinced ofparticipating in the second chance lottery, then you need to make sure you livein one of these states:

• Alaska
• Hawaii
• Nevada
• Mississippi
• Alabama
• Utah

If you’re looking for moreinformation concerning the second chance lottery, then the website of thelottery of your state will have more information.

How do second chance lotteries work?

Each state has its own set ofrules when it comes to second-chance lotteries, but there are some generalrules that every state has that you’ll have to follow.

Even if you don’t live in the laststates that were mentioned, in 44 states there are 43 states that have otherforms of second chances.

So depending on the form, therules change.

You first need to give a visit toyour state’s lottery website to check if they have any other form of secondchance drawings and find out their rules.

You need to check if the games areeligible, the entry deadlines and how many drawings occur to make sure you’vecollected all information concerning this.

To join these games, you’ll haveto visit the website, create an account with your information (name, last name,date of birth, email address) and simply follow the instructions.

In some states there’s no onlineentry system, so you’ll have to email your ticket and information if you wantto participate.

CheckingYour Account Status

The great thing about registering online is that you cancheck back the information you’ve entered at any given moment to check ifthey’re correct or not.

You don’t want to enter an incorrect name and let anotherperson win with your ticket, isn’t that right?

To let all odds in your favor, recheck your account andmake sure you’ve entered the tickets and the information correctly.

How To Win Scratch Lottery

Some sites will send you a notification on your email forconfirmation to make sure everything’s correct.

Make sure to check the website’s guideline and rules to getan idea of how you’ll be informed in case you win, even though most websiteswill do it either by phone or email.

But just give the website a look to avoid any surprises.

Avoidscams

Since second chance lotteries are for people who lost thefirst time, there are a lot of prying eyes on it.

Scammers prey on second-chance lottery players sincethey’re more likely to believe them because they’re looking for an easy way outwith a small prize rather than look for the big one.

To avoid scammers simply look for these signs:

● Emails with spelling mistakes

● Emails asking you for money or personal information

● Any form of communication that includes spelling mistakesand that ask for personal information and money

When in doubt, ask for someone to check if the email isscammy or not or simply check the website for further information.

Even though you might think that all hopes are lost once you lose the jackpot and don’t have any winning number, second chance lottery comes for rescue and gives you another chance to win extra draws, so make sure you always keep your scratch-off lottery ticket.

Second chance lotteries are not only beneficial for thestate, but for you too since you’ll be able to have higher chances of winningprizes with less competition, so if you’re looking for an easy way out withsome interesting prizes or cash involved, make sure to participate in them.

Secrets of State Lottery Scratch-off Contracts

When most people think of advantage gambling, state lottery scratch-offs are the last thing that enters their minds.

Everyone’s heard of counting cards at blackjack. There are even several moviesabout it.

And poker has been shown to be a game of skill; just look at the repeat winners of major tournaments like the World Series of Poker and the World Poker Tour.

But most people still refer to the lottery as an “idiot tax”.

And scratch offs have a notoriously bad expected value (which you can think of as a gambling game’s return on investment).

To give you an example of how bad lottery tickets can be, most $1 scratch offs have an expected value of around 60%, meaning for every $1 you spend, you’re expected to get back just $0.60; a $0.40 loss.

Most penny slots have paybacks that are better than that.

And other gambling games, like blackjack, can approach 99% payback without any card counting at all.

I’m here to shed light on a new way of thinking about scratch-offs and show you how you can improve your odds. It won’t always be profitable.

But under the right circumstances, it can be. If you’re going to play regardless, you might as well maximize your chances of winning.

Here are my insights about how to win at scratch-offs. I’ve gained these insights by reading the contracts and procurement documents that state lottery organizations have with their ticket printers.

Combine these insights with sites that calculate a scratch-off ticket’s odds, and you’ll be playing like a sharp

Where Are Scratch-off Grand Prizes?

Grand prizes are not random.

I’m sure all of these insights will come as a surprise.

But this one is probably the biggest.

Surely the state wants to ensure a fair game.

How can it be fair if the biggest prizes of all aren’t even random?

Here’s an image of the procurement document that the Massachusett’s lottery used to elicit bids from ticket printers:

You’ll see that they require the grand prizes to be distributed evenly throughout the game.

Note that “distributed evenly throughout the game” is not random.

If the prizes were random, then they might all appear at the start of the game. Or they might all appear at the end of a game.

But the state doesn’t want that to happen. If all of the grand prizes were claimed at the start of the game, then people would stop playing the game because they would have no shot at the big money.

You can take advantage of this fact by figuring out how many tickets are in a “pool” where a grand prize should be. If there are 9,000,000 tickets and 3 grand prizes, then divide 9,000,000 by 3 to figure out that there must be 1 grand prize every 3,000,000 tickets.

Then, use the state’s lottery website to figure out how many tickets remain. Most states publish this information for each game.

In the example game just mentioned, if there were 7,000,000 tickets remaining and still 3 remaining grand prizes, then you know the first grand prize must be in the next 1,000,000 tickets. Your odds just improved from 1 in 3,000,000 to 1 in 1,000,000.

That may not seem like much, but it can mean the difference between negative and positive expected value.

Is There A Limit To The Number Of Big Winning Tickets In A Roll?

How To Win Scratch Lotto Tickets

Here’s an image from documents filed as part of a Texas lawsuit against the state and the ticket printer:

In this contract that Texas has with IGT, there’s a clause that states that there can be no more than a certain number of $25-$50 winners per pack of tickets. There’s another clause that states there can be no more than one winner of $75 and higher per pack. (The “one” is redacted, but we can deduce that tit’s one by looking at the word following the redaction, which is “winner” rather than “winners”).

How can you use this to your advantage?

Buy only one ticket from a pack at a time and scratch it right there at the store.

If it happens to be a big winner, don’t buy any more tickets from that pack.

What Is The Minimum Payback for a Roll of Scratch-off Tickets?

This next image is from the request for a proposal from the New Mexico lottery association to ticket printers:

It shows that each pack of tickets has some guaranteed payout. The details of the guaranteed payout aren’t specified, but from other contracts and personal experience, I’ve found it to typically be about 50% of the price of a pack of tickets. If an entire roll of tickets costs $600, then the GLEP is usually about $300.

What this means for the advantage player is that you should not stop buying after a string of losers.

Since each roll of tickets is guaranteed to have a certain minimum payout, then every loser you see increases the chance that the remaining tickets are winners.

Conclusion

While none of the above insights will guarantee you will win, they are just a few of the things you can do for yourself if you want to know how to beat scratch-offs.

Combine these insights with some expected value calculations from the remaining prizes that get displayed on the state lottery websites and you’ll be doing way better than the average lotto player.

Good luck.

About the Author

Eric Ihli, a professional gambler/programmer, spent 10 years as a full-time professional gambler and 5 years as a software engineer. He now combines those two passions by writing software to discover and evaluate profitable gambling opportunities.