Scratch Smart Texas

1. Buy one at a time, then move

When you want several of the same game, never buy the whole batch at once. Buy a single ticket and scratch it before deciding the next move:

• If it wins — buy your next ticket from a different machine, store, or roll. A roll of tickets has a fixed number of winners printed in it. Once a winner comes out of one roll, the rest of that roll is slightly emptier. Moving on keeps each new ticket coming from a "full" pool.
• If it wins nothing — buy the next ticket from the same machine/roll. A loss means the winners still buried in that roll haven't come out yet, so the tickets left behind it are slightly richer.

2. Ask the clerk two questions

The person behind the counter can see things the website can't — your rankings are statewide, but a single roll is local.

• "How many tickets are left on this roll?" A roll that's nearly finished is one of two things: either its big winners already sold (avoid), or they're still inside and about to appear (good). That leads to the second question…
• "Has anyone bought this game this shift, and did they hit anything big?" If a near-empty roll has paid out its top prizes already, skip it. If a near-empty roll has not produced its printed winners yet, the remaining few tickets carry better-than-normal odds of holding one.

Clerks aren't required to answer and won't always know — but it costs nothing to ask, and the answer can save you from a drained roll.

3. Higher-priced tickets usually lose you less

As a rule, a $20, $30, or $50 ticket returns more of each dollar than a $1 or $2 ticket. The state keeps a bigger cut on cheap tickets. So spending $20 on one higher-tier ticket typically bleeds less than spending $20 on ten $2 tickets.

"Usually" is the key word — that's exactly what the EV per $1 number on each card measures (how many cents of each dollar comes back on average). Don't assume; let the ranker show you which specific games beat their price tier right now.

4. Chase concentration, watch closings

The Concentration number compares how likely the top prize is now versus when the game launched. Above 1.4x means the big prizes are unusually loaded into the tickets still out there.

When a game is closing soon but still has top prizes unclaimed, those prizes are spread across far fewer remaining tickets — your best window. The alerts banner flags these automatically.

The goal buttons & sliders

Picking a goal (or moving a slider) tells the app how much to care about four different things when it ranks games. The sliders always add up to 100% — they're shares of your attention, not separate scores.

• Return per $ (freshness) — favors games that pay back the most per dollar.
• Grand-prize chance (concentration) — favors games where the top prizes are bunched into the tickets still out there.
• Jackpot size — favors games with the biggest top prizes, period.
• Unclaimed top prizes — favors games with the most top prizes still live.

"Grand-prize chance" is driven by the Concentration number below — not by "Top Prize Odds Now." Concentration asks "is now a good moment?", odds ask "what are the raw chances?"

EV = "expected value." It's roughly how many cents, on average, come back to you for every $1 spent on that game right now. 79¢ means that, on average, a dollar returns about 79 cents.

So what: No game ever returns a full dollar — that's the house edge. But a game at 79¢ bleeds you slower than one at 64¢. Higher EV = losing less over time. This is the single best "value" number.

How much more likely the top prize is in today's leftover tickets versus when the game launched. 1.0x = same as launch. 1.5x = top prizes are 50% more bunched-up in what's left.

So what: A high number means people bought lots of tickets but the big prizes haven't been hit yet — so the remaining tickets are "richer" than a fresh game. This is the heart of timing your purchase.

An overall "richness" score for the leftover tickets across all prize levels (not just the top). Above 1.0 = the remaining tickets are richer than the game's launch-day average; below 1.0 = drained.

So what: Concentration is about the jackpot; Freshness is about every prize. A high-freshness game is one where less value has been claimed than tickets sold would suggest — good all around.

A quick flag we add to any game whose Concentration is 1.4x or higher.

So what: It's just a shortcut so you can spot the unusually well-stocked games at a glance without reading every number.

Your chance of hitting the top prize on a single ticket today, shown as "1 in X." It accounts for how many top prizes and tickets are left right now.

So what: This is the honest, current odds of the jackpot per ticket. Smaller X = better shot. Use it to compare the raw jackpot chance between two games.

The top-prize odds adjusted for ticket price — your jackpot chance per dollar, not per ticket. Also "1 in X," smaller is better.

So what: Here's the difference from the line above. "Top Prize Odds Now" treats a $1 ticket and a $100 ticket the same — one shot each. But the $100 ticket costs 100× more. "Jackpot per $1 Spent" levels the playing field by asking: for the same money, which game gives the better jackpot shot? It's the fair way to compare a cheap game against an expensive one.

Tickets sold is the estimated share of the game's tickets already purchased statewide. Top prizes left shows how many jackpots remain out of how many were printed (e.g. "2 of 4").

So what: The sweet spot is lots of tickets sold but top prizes still unclaimed — that's exactly when the leftovers are richest. Few prizes left isn't automatically bad; pair it with Concentration to judge.

The Texas Lottery has announced an end date for this game; after it closes you can still redeem winners for 180 days.

So what: A closing game that still has top prizes is a narrowing window — those prizes are spread across fewer and fewer tickets. The Top Picks banner flags the best one automatically.