
Missouri runs a well-established scratch-off program through the Missouri Lottery, with dozens of games on sale at once spanning $1 quick plays up to higher-priced tickets that hold the state's largest instant prizes. The Missouri Lottery has run instant games for decades, and its catalog is deep enough that at any moment some games are freshly launched while others are nearly sold through. The trick to playing smarter in Missouri isn't luck—it's knowing which of those games still hold real value, and which have quietly been drained. Here's how to find the best Missouri scratch-off tickets.
Every scratch-off prints its overall odds on the back—something like 1 in 4. But that number is calculated once, the day the game launches, and never change as prizes get claimed. As players claim prizes, the real odds shift, usually for the worse. A Missouri game can still advertise a big top prize that has already been completely claimed.
The number that actually matters is the current payout: how much value is left in a game right now, based on the prizes still unclaimed. That's the whole idea behind the rankings on this page. The Missouri Lottery publishes remaining-prize data for every active game, and ScratchSmart reads it every day to work out which tickets are genuinely worth buying today—not on launch day.
Here's the single most important thing to check before you buy: are the top prizes still available? A game with zero top prizes left still sits in the dispenser at full price, still advertising odds that assume those prizes exist. Buying it means paying full freight for a game whose best outcomes are already gone.
So the first question isn't "what are the odds on the back?" It's "how many of the big prizes are still out there, relative to how many tickets remain?" A newer game with its top prizes intact is almost always a smarter buy than an older one that's been picked clean, even when both advertise the same odds.
As in every state, higher-priced tickets return more per dollar:
Pick the highest tier you're comfortable spending, then find the best specific game within it. If you want the deeper method, our guide to reading a game's remaining prizes walks through it step by step, and our best scratch-off strategy pulls the whole approach together. If you also play nearby, our Arkansas scratch-off guide takes the same approach for that state. If you also play nearby, our Illinois scratch-off guide takes the same approach for that state.
The Missouri Lottery updates its remaining-prize numbers daily, and doing that math by hand across every active game is tedious—so ScratchSmart does it for you. Here are the Missouri games with the best current payout today, and a few worth avoiding because their best prizes are already gone.
Current payout is what a ticket returns per dollar based on the prizes that are still unclaimed right now — not the odds printed when the game launched. Advertised payout is shown beside it so you can see the gap.
| # | Game | Price | Current payout | Advertised | Top prizes left |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $250 MILLION EXTRAVAGANZA | $50 | 81.7% | 81.6% | 2 of 3 |
| 2 | SUPER 7S | $30 | 81.2% | 80.7% | 2 of 3 |
| 3 | MILLIONAIRE RICHES | $50 | 81.1% | 81.3% | 12 of 15 |
| 4 | 500X PAYOUT | $50 | 80.9% | 81.8% | 2 of 3 |
| 5 | MAGNIFICENT MILLIONS | $20 | 79.5% | 77.7% | 1 of 2 |
| 6 | $3 MILLION* SUPREME | $30 | 79.4% | 80.6% | 1 of 3 |
| 7 | DIAMONDS & GOLD | $20 | 78.6% | 77.7% | 1 of 2 |
| 8 | $2,000,000* PLATINUM PAYOUT | $20 | 78.5% | 77.7% | 1 of 2 |
| 9 | $2,000,000* BANKROLL | $20 | 78.5% | 77.7% | 2 of 2 |
| 10 | $2,000,000* JACKPOT FORTUNE | $20 | 77.7% | 77.8% | 1 of 2 |
These Missouri games have no top prize left and are still on shelves. The jackpot you would be buying for no longer exists.
| Game | Price | Top prize | Remaining | Still selling |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $5,000,000 FORTUNE | $50 | $5M | 0 left | 42.4% still unsold |
| 40TH ANNIVERSARY | $20 | $2M | 0 left | 38.5% still unsold |
| GOLD RUSH | $10 | $1M | 0 left | 30.6% still unsold |
See all 80 Missouri games ranked → Every figure above comes from official Missouri lottery prize data and refreshes daily.