Time for some myth busting in our special series Lottery Myths versus Lottery Facts. We're debunking some of the most commonly shared myths about lottery games.
Today we're talking scratch-off odds and the myth that the odds stated on tickets are wrong.
We hear this a lot from players on social media. It usually goes like this. “Hey Ohio Lottery! I bought three tickets and the odds say they’re 1:3, so why didn’t I win? The odds are bogus!”
Let’s talk about why they’re not.
Odds are calculated by taking the total number of tickets divided by the number of winning tickets.
Take the popular $500,000 Cashword ticket for example. Four million tickets were printed and there are 1,083,564 winning tickets, making the odds one in 3.69. But that doesn’t mean every third ticket is a winner.
Click here to watch the video about scratch-off odds to learn more!