You might think playing a scratch card is pretty easy. You buy the card, scratch it off and maybe win a prize. But there is a little more to it than that and indeed there are ways to make sure you are maximising your chances of winning! Sure, some of the tips and guidelines below may be elementary, but if you follow all of them that you are about to read, you will really start winning at online scratch cards not on Gamstop much more often.
Understand The Rules of Winning
You might not know this, but the makers of scratch cards earn millions each and every year from people who buy the cards, scratch them off and them throw them away, even when they are winning cards! Some cards have such unusual fonts and ways to win that people don’t realize they have won, so by understanding the rules of each game on a single card will increase your chances of noticing it is a winner.
Buy Just One
If the odds of winning are 1 in 3, then buying 3 will make sure you have at least one winner right? Well, no. In fact, you have the same odds with one card as you do with a million of them. This is because your odds of winning don’t increase the more you buy, they always stay the same.
Buy Different Games
Taking the advice listed above about only buying one, if you wish to buy more than one you should consider getting one from different games. So instead of buying 2 scratch cards from the Monopoly game, get one of those games and another from something else. The reason for this is listed below…
Check if There Are Prizes to Win
You buy a scratch card with 1 in a million chances of winning and someone will win that prize in the end, right? Well, no! In fact, there might be no big prizes left to win that is why every scratch card company has to show how many winners there are remaining for each scratch card! Check out THIS LIST of all UK scratch cards and it clearly shows there are several scratch cards still for sale that have no big winners left at all!
Older Cards With Winners Left Are Your Best Bet
Sure, there might be scratch cards on sale that have no winners, but there are also scratch cards with lots of winners that have been on sale for years! This means there is a much higher chance of there being a winner out there already, in not more than one big winner! Check out the dates the scratch card game was launched and link that to the number of big wins still left out there.
Submit ALL Scratch Cards
Even if you personally don’t think the card is a winner there is no harm in having the retailer check it for you. They will scan the scratch card and tell for sure if it is a winner or not.
Don’t Buy The Cheapest
If you plan to spend £1 on a scratch card, then spend £1 on a scratch card! You will be much better off getting the higher-priced one in accordance with your own budget than buying several of the smaller ones. Remember, the odds of winning don’t increase the higher you go, but the lowest prizes are always higher meaning you are likely to win more from a single £5 scratch card than buying 5X £1 ones.
Scratch it All Off
With most modern scratch cards there are several games on each card. But scratching off all the latex will reveal all the prizes as well as the code the retailer needs to see if it is a winner or not. Sure, you will be seeing all the prizes you didn’t win, but you stand much better odds of seeing the prizes if there are any.
Not All Scratch Cards Are The Same Odds
While most scratch cards have a 1 in 3.07 chance of winning the more it costs the higher that chance gets with some of the more expensive £10 cards having a 1 in 2 chance of winning! Each game, each card by law has to have the payout and odds of winning printed on the card, so always check them out.
When it Stops Being Fun – STOP!
If you find yourself buying too many of them and going over your own intended budget you might want to stop yourself from buying them. Speak to the retailer you are buying them from and tell them to stop selling them to you. They will make sure all staff know who you are and prevent you from buying more for a set period of time. If that doesn’t work you should seek professional advice at the very least. A scratch card is nothing more than a big of fun with lady luck, but when that relationship goes sour, you should end it.
Do you have any other tips and advice relating to scratch cards? If you do why not leave a comment below and share it with everyone.
