[00:00] Hi and welcome to Lotto Edge. This is Jared, founder and chief lottery nerd here at Lotto Edge. Today, I want to share with you five expert tips for anyone who plays scratch off games. These are going to be great tips for beginners and all the way up to seasoned pro players.
[00:16] All right, let's jump right in. First tip here is don't only look at the overall odds. Now the overall odds are the odds typically printed on the back of a ticket and maybe
[00:28] the only odds shared by a state lottery. You can find them here on Lotterwedge under the overall odds section. Now these are the most basic and most often used by uninformed players. See these
[00:40] are the odds to win any prize in a game and why that matters is a game can be stuffed with lots of break-even prizes to make those overall odds look good and lure players in. So in this game
[00:54] the $5 prize at the bottom of the prize table is considered a break-even prize. It's the same price as this $5 ticket. So some state lotteries will load up a lot of these break prizes and help improve the overall odds in a game So what you really want to do is make sure you looking at the specific odds to win
[01:16] prizes to get yourself a real advantage. You don't want to rely only on the overall odds. Alright, my next tip here is don't necessarily play games with the highest top prize.
[01:29] In fact when I play, I often look for games with the lowest top prize for that ticket price. Let me show you an example here. I happen to have here California tickets and their $20 price point. We can see here we have top prizes of $5 million,
[01:42] and I think it goes all the way down here to $2 million. So if I'm playing this game, I may choose this ticket with a $2 million top prize because to pay out a higher top prize,
[01:54] a state lottery has to sell a lot more tickets and a lot more losers to pay out those high prizes. Now, they can pay out more $2 million prizes or lower level prizes if they don't have to
[02:07] pay out these jumbo big five, $10 million prizes. So consider looking at game price points and the lower ticket top prizes for that price point All right quick pro tip here too The odds especially for these top prizes actually change daily And now we show those odds changes here
[02:29] under any one of our tickets under the prize odds tab. And we label it here current odds. And these are the daily odds to win those prizes. And like I said, the bigger top prizes, you'll see more movement in the current odds.
[02:44] You wanna make sure you check these out and always monitor these daily odds changes if you're chasing a higher level prize. All right, my third tip here is know the claim deadline for your scratch-off.
[02:56] Now, these vary by state. Now, lots of winning tickets go unclaimed when a deadline is missed, and the claim deadlines are usually 90 days, 180 days, or even one year after the game has ended. So make sure you check your state, know the claim deadline, and also know when that game ends.
[03:14] You don't want to miss out cashing a winning ticket. All right, my fourth tip here is consider games that include a second chance drawing or game. Now you can sometimes see those tickets may be labeled here like this one in the top corner with second chance prize And you can multiply your chances of winning just by entering these games Now lots of people just discard their ticket without entering
[03:38] that second chance drawing. Don't throw away potential winning money. You're going to want to enter these second chance drawings. All right my fifth tip here and I can't believe I'm adding this one but I swear I've seen comments around the internet about this but be an educated player and know how to play
[03:54] the game you purchased. If a game is confusing or you don't understand how to win, you risk missing out on a winning ticket. I've seen comments out there of people just asking the internet, did I win on this ticket? Well, if you're not sure, you maybe should be playing
[04:09] a different game. Or as we've mentioned in other videos, download your lottery app or go to a lottery retailer and have your ticket scanned to see if it's a winner. But most importantly, you should probably be playing games that you understand how to play and
[04:23] how to actually win. All right. I hope these tips help and help you consider which scratch-off games you want to play. If you need any extra help, come visit us at lottoedge.com. We have tons of data
[04:35] on your favorite scratch-off games where we track prizes, track ticket sales, and always the daily odds changes. Well, thanks for tuning in.