Scratch Smart Texas

🎯 If you're chasing the jackpot

You want the best shot at a life-changing number and don't much care about small returns.

Use: the Biggest jackpot goal (largest prizes) · the $100K+ / $1M+ prize-target buttons for your best odds at a big win for your money · add a Budget and the “Best for your budget” callout names the game your money buys the best shot at that prize.

Skip the value tips below. “Buy one at a time” and “higher-priced tickets lose less” are about getting money back — not hitting the jackpot. As a pure dreamer, chase prize density and the odds, not the EV.

📖 The honest math: could you buy your way to a jackpot? →

💵 If you want the best value (lose the least)

You want the most fun per dollar and the best chance of getting something back. These are the moves that shift the small edges — and the tips here are written for you.

Use: the Best value goal (most prize value still on the table per dollar) and the EV per $1 number on each card.

Higher-priced tickets usually lose you less. A $20 / $30 / $50 ticket returns more of each dollar than a $1 / $2 ticket — the state keeps a bigger cut on cheap tickets. So $20 on one higher-tier ticket typically gives more back than $20 on ten $2 tickets. “Usually” is the catch — let the EV per $1 number show which games actually beat their tier right now.

Buy one at a time, then move. When you want several of the same game, don't grab the whole batch:

• If it wins — buy the next from a different machine, store, or roll. A roll has a fixed number of winners printed in it; once one comes out, the rest of that roll is slightly emptier.
• If it wins nothing — buy the next from the same roll. The winners still buried in it haven't appeared yet, so the tickets behind it are slightly richer.

Ask the clerk two questions — your rankings are statewide, but a single roll is local:

• “How many tickets are left on this roll?”
• “Has anyone hit anything big on it this shift?” A near-empty roll that already paid its top prizes — skip it. One that hasn't paid them yet — the few tickets left carry better-than-normal odds of holding one.

Clerks aren't required to answer and won't always know — but it costs nothing to ask, and the answer can save you from a drained roll.

🎁 If you're buying it as a gift

You want the person to have the best chance of a happy moment — winning something beats handing them a dead ticket.

Use: the Best value goal — the best return means the best odds they win at least a little back, so the scratch actually feels rewarding. Steer clear of anything on the “games to skip” list (picked-over games whose prizes are mostly claimed).

A single $5 game with great value often delights more than a fistful of $1 tickets — more to scratch, and a better shot at a hit. You're buying them a good daydream; make it one where the prizes are genuinely still out there.

👥 If you're pooling money (group buy-in)

Several people chip in a set amount and you want the best combined shot at a real prize.

Use: enter the pool total as your Budget · pick a prize target everyone agrees is worth it ($100K+, $1M+) · the “Best for your budget” callout names the single game that gives your pool the best combined odds — then buy multiples of that one.

Why it works: your combined chance is roughly the sum of each ticket's, so loading up on the best per-dollar game you can afford beats scattering across random games. The callout also respects what you can actually buy — a $30 game is out if the pool's share only covers $20.

📖 Full guide: How to run a Texas scratch-off pool (no-argument rules, game selection, tax basics) →

⏱️ If you want to time your buy

You think now might be a better moment than later. Sometimes it is.

Use: prize density — each card's live top-prize odds shown against the odds printed at launch. When the live odds beat launch, the big prizes are unusually loaded into the tickets still out there. Also watch closing-soon games that still have top prizes — a narrowing window of fewer and fewer tickets. The Top Picks banner flags the best one.

Honest limit: this signal lives at the top prize, where prizes are few and the odds actually swing. Mid-tier odds barely move as a game sells — so “timing” a $100 win isn't really a thing. Time the jackpot, not the small stuff.

📖 Go deeper

Plain-English reads on the "why" behind the numbers:

The goal buttons & sliders

Picking a goal (or moving a slider) tells the app how much to care about four different things when it ranks games. The sliders always add up to 100% — they're shares of your attention, not separate scores.

• Return per $ (prize value) — favors games that pay back the most per dollar.
• Grand-prize chance (prize density) — favors games where the top prizes are bunched into the tickets still out there.
• Jackpot size — favors games with the biggest top prizes, period.
• Unclaimed top prizes — favors games with the most top prizes still live.
• Jackpot odds per $ — favors games with the best top-prize odds for every dollar spent (among $1M+ games).

"Grand-prize chance" is driven by prize density (the live-odds gap) — not by "Top Prize Odds Now." Prize density asks "is now a good moment?", odds ask "what are the raw chances?"

Aim for a prize ($10K / $100K / $1M+) re-ranks every game by your best odds of winning at or above that amount — ranked per dollar, so the best value for your money sits on top. The order genuinely shifts over time as big prizes get claimed.

Search pulls up the exact game in your hand. Ranks by goal (shown when you expand a card) tells you where that game places under every goal — e.g. #1 for grand prize but #20 for biggest jackpot.

So what: “Aim for a prize” answers “I’d be happy with $100k — where are my best odds?” Search + ranks answer “I’m holding this game — is it any good, and for what?”

EV = "expected value." It's roughly how many cents, on average, come back to you for every $1 spent on that game right now. 79¢ means that, on average, a dollar returns about 79 cents.

So what: No game ever returns a full dollar — that's the house edge. But a game at 79¢ gives you more back than one at 64¢. Higher EV means your budget buys more play and more dreaming. This is the single best "value" number.

How much more likely the top prize is in today's leftover tickets versus when the game launched. 1.0x = same as launch. 1.5x = top prizes are 50% more bunched-up in what's left.

So what: A high number means people bought lots of tickets but the big prizes haven't been hit yet — so the remaining tickets are "richer" than a fresh game. This is the heart of timing your purchase.

An overall "richness" score for the leftover tickets across all prize levels (not just the top). Above 1.0 = the remaining tickets are richer than the game's launch-day average; below 1.0 = drained.

So what: Prize density is about the jackpot; prize value is about every prize. A high-prize-value game is one where less value has been claimed than tickets sold would suggest — good all around.

A quick flag we add to any game whose prize density is 1.4x or higher.

So what: It's just a shortcut so you can spot the unusually well-stocked games at a glance without reading every number.

Your chance of hitting the top prize on a single ticket today, shown as "1 in X." It accounts for how many top prizes and tickets are left right now.

So what: This is the honest, current odds of the jackpot per ticket. Smaller X = better shot. Use it to compare the raw jackpot chance between two games.

The top-prize odds adjusted for ticket price — your jackpot chance per dollar, not per ticket. Also "1 in X," smaller is better.

So what: Here's the difference from the line above. "Top Prize Odds Now" treats a $1 ticket and a $100 ticket the same — one shot each. But the $100 ticket costs 100× more. "Jackpot per $1 Spent" levels the playing field by asking: for the same money, which game gives the better jackpot shot? It's the fair way to compare a cheap game against an expensive one.

Tickets sold is the estimated share of the game's tickets already purchased statewide. Top prizes left shows how many jackpots remain out of how many were printed (e.g. "2 of 4").

So what: The sweet spot is lots of tickets sold but top prizes still unclaimed — that's exactly when the leftovers are richest. Few prizes left isn't automatically bad; pair it with prize density to judge.

The Texas Lottery has announced an end date for this game; after it closes you can still redeem winners for 180 days.

So what: A closing game that still has top prizes is a narrowing window — those prizes are spread across fewer and fewer tickets. The Top Picks banner flags the best one automatically.