The Texas Scratch Offs With The Best Chances to Win Holiday Cash
Texas Lottery Scratch-Off Tickets are win-win gifts for the holidays. The giver only has to spend a few bucks, and the receiver is excited because there's a chance they could win thousands of dollars.
Etiquette Question
If the person given the ticket wins a huge dollar amount, should they give some of that money back to the gifter? That's a post for another time.
Does it matter which scratch-off tickets you choose this Christmas?
If you're looking to have the best chances of winning the big payouts...yes, it does matter.
The methodology I use takes into consideration the percentage of lower-tier payouts that have been won as compared to the percentage of top payouts that have been won.
Let's take the Bingo X20 Scratch Off Game as an example.
Let's Crunch Some Texas Lottery Numbers
Approximately 16% of the lower-tier prizes have been won, but 0% of the 8 - $100,000 top prizes have been given away. This game had around 16.9 million tickets distributed. It's reasonable to assume that around 16% of those tickets have been purchased.
That means that approximately 14.2 million tickets are left in circulation. So, instead of a 1 in 2.1 million chance of winning $100,000 with this ticket, you now have a 1 in 1.7 million chance of winning one of the top prizes.
Yeah, I know, not much hope of winning the big prize. But, keep this in mind. If you were given the choice of buying a scratch-off ticket with very, very, very little chance of winning the top prize or a ticket with very, very little chance of winning big, wouldn't you choose the ticket that gives you a little more hope to win?
So yes, the data crunching truly does move the dial in your favor, but only very, very little. Your chance of winning a grand prize payout remains microscopically small, but if you can increase your odds by a hundredth or a thousandth of a decimal point...why not?
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December 2023 scratch offs
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Gallery Credit: Chandler Friedman