$1 vs $5 vs $10 vs $20 Scratch-Offs: Which Is the Best Value?
If you've ever stood at the counter wondering whether to grab five $1 tickets or one $5, you're asking the right question. The four most common price points—$1, $5, $10, and $20—are not created equal. Here's how they stack up on odds, payout rate, and value per dollar, and how to decide which is right for you.
The head-to-head
The clearest pattern in all of scratch-off play: as the price goes up, so does the percentage of your money returned as prizes. State lotteries design it that way to justify the higher cost.
$1 tickets — Payout rate around 50–60%, overall odds roughly 1 in 4.5 to 1 in 5. You lose about 45–48 cents on every dollar. These are the worst value per dollar, built for impulse buys and small, frequent thrills rather than real return.
$5 tickets — Payout rate around 62–70%, odds roughly 1 in 3.5 to 1 in 4. A solid middle ground: meaningfully better value than $1 games without the bigger per-ticket commitment of the top tiers.
$10 tickets — Payout rate around 68–75%, odds roughly 1 in 3.2 to 1 in 3.7. Strong value with a real shot at larger mid-tier prizes. A good balance point for most players.
$20 tickets — Payout rate around 72–82%, odds roughly 1 in 2.8 to 1 in 3.3. The best value per dollar of the four. A $20 ticket eats only about 20–25 cents of each dollar, versus nearly half on a $1 ticket.
Value per dollar: the bottom line
On a pure per-dollar basis, the ranking is straightforward: $20 > $10 > $5 > $1. Moving from a $1 game to a $20 game can more than halve how fast you lose money. If your only goal is to get the most value from each dollar you spend, higher is better.
But the "right" tier isn't always the highest
Three things complicate the simple ranking:
- Bigger absolute loss. A better payout rate is a percentage—the dollar amount still scales. A $20 ticket loses about $4–5 on average per ticket, versus roughly 48 cents on a $1. Better value only helps if the price fits a budget you're comfortable with.
- Fewer tickets, less play time. Twenty $1 tickets give you twenty moments of scratching; one $20 gives you one. If the entertainment of playing is part of the value for you, cheaper tickets stretch further.
- The specific game still matters more than the tier. Two $20 games can have identical printed odds but very different real value depending on how many top prizes are left. A picked-over $20 game can be a worse buy than a fresh $5.
So which should you buy?
- Best value per dollar: a $20 game, if it fits your budget and still has its top prizes.
- Best balance of value and reach: a $10 game—strong payout without the full $20 commitment.
- Most play time for a small spend: $5 over $1 every time; $1 games are the weakest value on the board.
The honest answer: pick the highest price tier you're comfortable spending, then—within that tier—buy the specific game with the best current value. That last step is where the real difference hides, because the printed odds won't tell you which $20 game is actually worth it today.
That's the part we handle. We pull every state's prize data daily, calculate the real expected value for every active game at every price point, and rank them—so once you've picked your budget, you can see in seconds which ticket at that price is the smart buy right now.
See today's best games →