Most lottery players seem to love participating in instant games. Tons of people receive scratch tickets as holiday gifts. Some play an instant game at the gas station. Others load up on cheap scratch-offs for a particular date or anniversary with the idea their luck will increase tenfold. Chances are, most readers will have played an instant lottery game in the last 90 days. In fact, instant play tickets have become so popular that lottery companies worldwide are looking at how they can build on the instant play model.
With instant games’ popularity at its highest, Lottery Geeks wanted to know which games customers bought the most. To find out what people were playing, Lottery Geeks scoured the internet for clues.
First things first: What are instant games?
Some readers may be wondering what an instant lottery game is precisely. It’s pretty simple: the players buy whatever the product is, usually a scratch ticket, follow the instructions on the back to match symbols together, or if they skip that part of the fun, they can scan the barcode to see if their ticket won anything. Hence, which is why it’s called an “instant play.” The customer knows within minutes if they’re a winner or a loser.
Instant lottery game hybrids
In some states or provinces, there are certain instant play products where the customer asks the vendor for a ticket to the game. At the store, the game starts with an instant play, but after the instant play is over, the customers get to keep the ticket and wait for a separate draw.
An excellent example of such a game would be Wheel of Fortune Lotto. For $2, the customer “spins the wheel” at the store. They can win up to a certain amount on the wheel spin. Even if the customer doesn’t win anything in the instant game, they’ll get a ticket with words on the bottom. They win a prize if they get enough words to match the draw results.
These games hybridize the two lottery models but seem very popular among players.
Canadians go nuts for the $100 Ultimate prize.
In Ontario, the $100 Ultimate scratch ticket gets a lot of love from customers. Why? The ticket provides some of the best odds of becoming a millionaire — 1 in 25,000. The player has a 1 in 3.55 of winning something back off their original $100 investment.
The main drawback some players see with the ticket is its $100 price tag. That’s a lot of money to spend on a scratch ticket, even if the odds of winning something back are relatively high. Another thing to keep in mind is these draws happen infrequently.
Since the ticket is sold infrequently, one could argue that when it’s sold, the desire of the consumer to buy one is heightened.
Feyazuddin Mohammed, a $1 million grand prize winner, doesn’t regret his impulsive purchase.
Payday Bonus Scratch-Off
The Florida Lottery released the Payday Bonus scratch ticket in April 2023. Since then, the $10 instant play has become a beloved game within the state. There are prizes ranging up to $2 million, and Floridians sure feel lucky.
Many social media posts are about people buying tickets and winning more significant amounts of money. The posts could be a part of the marketing scheme for the ticket itself, but people sure do like buying the ticket. Plenty of threads have been created asking a plethora of questions regarding strategies for winning big with the Payday scratch ticket.
According to the Florida Lottery, the odds of winning something are 1 in 4.4. It’s not overly remarkable, but it’s not bad either.
Fast cash?
Fast $200s is another ticket that generates much buzz on the interweb. It only costs $2 and has decent prize offerings.
Most players buy the scratch ticket just for fun. It’s not the prize offerings that draw them. Players are hoping to fill their need for excitement. If they happen to win anything, they’re happy.
And it’s not like they don’t have a chance of winning. The Florida Lottery website calculates a 1 in 4.38 chance of winning something. Customers are getting decent value for their money compared to the other games mentioned.
SHOW ME THE MONEY!
The New York Lottery’s All Cash scratch ticket game has developed a cult following. The top prize isn’t going to blow people away — it’s only $5,000. That said, the odds of winning that top prize are way better (1 in 6,176.55) than other games in the same price range.
While the odds of winning the grand prize are better than the rest, the overall odds of winning something are the lowest in this article at 1 in 4.64.
Nevertheless, people have been playing the game, so those odds don’t scare them away.
Oldie but a goodie
Fans of the scratch tickets have been begging the North Carolina Education Lottery to bring back the $300,000,000 Supreme Riches game.
Many people bought the ticket when it was released in 2019 and 2020. Although the odds and payouts aren’t posted anymore, fans said those odds were right on par with the tickets of today’s market. What appealed to them the most was the chance of winning the main prize. It was an “eye-catching” $10 million.
The $30 entry price was a manageable burden for the average player, especially with the desirable top-tier prizes.
The grand prize was eventually won by an ironworker named Wade Harmon. The ironworker was debating whether or not to buy a lottery ticket when he stopped at a truck stop. Not only did he buy a lottery ticket, but he bought the famed scratch tickets. As the old saying goes, the rest was history.
With Harmon’s humble rise to fame, many have wanted to repeat his footsteps, creating a massive demand for the game to hit retailers once again.
Shipping out for Boston!
The Massachusetts Lottery is upping its game. Not only did it allow Jackpot.com into the marketplace, but the Lottery also created a scratch ticket to excite the players.
In February 2024, there will be a $50 Lifetime Millions ticket. What does Lifetime mean? The grand prize will pay the winner a million dollars for each year of their lives.
“To differentiate this ticket from our first $50 ticket that featured grand prizes of $25 million, Lifetime Millions will give players the chance to win a million dollars a year for the rest of their lives,” Mark William Bracken, the lottery’s executive director, said in a statement. “The prize is guaranteed for a minimum of 20 years, but has the potential to be paid out for many, many more.”
The Lottery told media members the tickets have an 82 percent payout rate. Once the ticket is released, Lottery Geeks anticipates it may become the top-selling scratch-off game in the state. At least, that’s what the online chatter would have the rational person believe.
