Should you play the lottery or scratch-off lottery tickets? Which is better?

Well, first there’s a little-known problem with lottery scratch off cards that you’ll never discover until you walk into the lottery store.

And it can be a big problem. In a state like Colorado, over 75% of lottery players are scratch game players, reports 9NEWS.

Stores that sell scratch-offs, like King Soopers, can sometimes run out of tickets

  Photo: Google maps

And so when a scratch game gets hot, big USA retailers like King Soopers, Safeway, and others can run out of tickets.

That’s because individual players will walk in and buy entire rolls of the popular game.

“Oftentimes they will go in and they will buy hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of tickets within that game,” said lottery communication director Brooke Christopher.

Colorado Lottery communication director Brooke Christopher (right)

  Photo: Colorado Lottery

And often, because of that pressure, all the top prizes will disappear early in a game.

“Sometimes it just happens. We put a game out in the market and for some reason, within the first month or month and a half, the top prizes are gone,” Christopher told 9News.

That’s why the lottery has the edge over scratch-off card games.

Lottery top prizes are always available until they’re won, and conveniently you know within minutes after the draw.

However, you can check whether scratch games are available, for example on the Colorado Lottery website. It will tell you which games still have big prizes.

Simply select “scratch games”, then select “Top prizes remaining” and you’ll get a number of pages showing all the current active games.

Just be aware that the time between finding out the available games and buying a roll of tickets, someone else could have bought the prize-winning ticket.

So what’s the answer? Here’s a quick breakdown of their unique offerings and what might appeal to potential players.

How Do You Play?

For the lottery, players choose a selection of numbers. If these numbers match the ones drawn during the lottery event, you can win various prizes. The biggest prize is reserved for those who get every single number right.

With scratch-off games, it’s a bit different. Players purchase a card and scratch off a surface to reveal information underneath. If the symbols or numbers on your card match the winning patterns, you win a prize right there and then.

What’s The Chance of Winning?

Trying to grab the top prize in a lottery is really challenging. Sometimes, the odds are extremely low, like 1 in tens of millions. Despite this, the appeal is in the enormous prize, which can be in the hundreds of millions or even more.

On the other hand, with scratch-off games, you generally have a higher probability of winning. The prizes, however, are usually not as large, but on occasion, you might stumble upon a game where you can win up to a million.

 POLL  Do you prefer to play the Lottery or Scratch-offs?

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How Much Can You Win?

Lotteries are known for their massive prizes that can run into the multi millions. In contrast, scratch-off games hand out prizes that are often smaller. That said, certain premium scratch-off games might offer jackpots close to a million.

How Long Do You Wait to Know?

For lotteries, there’s an element of suspense. The results are announced on scheduled days – it could be daily, weekly, or sometimes bi-weekly. This period of waiting adds to the excitement and anticipation. However, scratch-off games give you results instantly. The moment you scratch off that surface, you’ll know if you’re taking home a prize.

What Do They Look Like?

Scratch-off games come in a variety of designs, themes, and methods of play, making them quite diverse and appealing. Lotteries, in comparison, maintain a consistent look and feel, which many traditional players appreciate.

Main Points to Remember

Lottery: Offers potentially gigantic prizes but requires patience as you wait for scheduled results.

Scratch-Offs: Provides immediate results, generally gives players a better chance to win, and boasts a large variety of game types to choose from.

At the end of the day, whether you lean towards lotteries or scratch-offs, it all boils down to how well you match the numbers.