to ask if its worth ever buying scratchcards?

[brandy17]

I know any form of gambling is a mugs game,but I have stopped buying lottery tickets and now and again buy a scratchcard
I have literally never won even a tiny amount
Does anyone know someone who has won any kind of significant amount on these , or is it never worth buying a scratchcard?

A woman in my town won £500,000 on a scratch card.

Locally a bus driver bought a scratch card from the bus station newsagents a few weeks ago and won £250,000. I have never bought one but it shows its possible.

I won £70 once.

I win a fiver on Friday!

A friend won £2000 a few years ago.

What a strange question - of course no one can say whether or not it will be worth it to buy them, because no one can know whether or not you'll win.

You're paying for a chance - if you're happy to spend money on that, fine, but its impossible to say in advance whether or not it will be worth it.

Mugs game. Odds are frightening and you see people buying a load scratching them in the shop and buying again.

I had one once, one with three different games on, and won on all of them! The total was only about £25 but it totally made my day

In terms of investment, it's not worth buying them, as the odds are massively stacked that you won't get your money back.

I would be astounded if it was dishonestly fixed though, with the amount of media scrutiny of the lottery and the scandal that would ensue if it were bullshit.

I like playing the lottery when I'm in England - I see it as giving money to good causes without giving away my personal details, so nobody phones asking me up my donation etc. I don't buy scratch cards, though - too easy to buy more in the hope that you'll win back your losses.

I've wine the odd £20, £40 and £100 twice. I don't but them very often I've just been lucky. More often than not when i do but one i win my £1 or £2 back.
Some people spend and absolute fortune on them. There was a sign in a local shop once about someone bought one their and won thousands so it does happen.

My dad won £100 the other week. He does a few scratch cards a week as a hobby and add on to his lottery tickets.

A scratch card called my name once. It was £2. I only had £1 so I bought a £1 one. Won £2 so I bought the £2 that was really catching my eye. I ended up winning £40

They're not a scam but the odds are such that the likelihood of winning anything significant is very low.

They have to make money so presumably for every £100,000 prize they have to sell over £100,000 worth of losing scratch cards. The chance of ever winning anything life-changing is low, but those top prizes do exist and somebody has to win them.

I never buy them now although used to occasionally when I was younger - most I ever won was my £1/£2 back.

I buy them as small birthday gifts for people, but never for myself.

How are scratch cards a hobby?

The odds will always be against you, but people do win sometimes - I have two relatives who have won £1000 each.
Don't think I've ever won more than £5.

silver l imagine you can keep all the cards that didn't win.
A bit like carrier bag collections in the 70 's.

Tax on the poor.

DH wins nearly every time he buys one (which is one a week or so) he's won 50-100 a fair few times. He doesn't buy them as much now but he's won far more than we ever won doing the lottery every week.

Does anyone know someone who has won any kind of significant amount on these
Of course some people will have heard of someone who has. But that has nothing to do with whether it's worth buying them or not.

Your own experience, of never even winning a small amount, is much more typical.

Last I checked, the expected return from a scratch card is 60p from every pound put in. So you lose 40 pence on average, for every card you buy (assuming a 1 pound card). Which to some people is worth it for the fun/thrill/pleasure of the scratch. Not for me though - no interest.

I believe the scratch card expected return rate is higher than the regular national lottery rate, which is 40-50%. And then because this is skewed towards big payouts, when some statisticians played 10,000 times they only made a return of 30%.
All this a bit hazy as I read it some time ago. But I remember concluding that scratch cards had a bit higher expected return, both in probability terms and in real terms.

A man with a shaky grasp of statistics encouraged me to buy a scratchcard, saying "the great thing is that you win more than you spend on them". Obviously not!

I don't understand your question OP, obviously some people will win significant amounts of money on them, but most will lose small amounts. Up to you whether you think the gamble is worthwhile.

My dad won £100 the other week. He does a few scratch cards a week as a hobby and add on to his lottery tickets.

So if he spends two pounds on scratchcards a week he needs to win £104 a year to break even. So not that exciting a win.

How can scratchcards be a hobby?

That's a mean post HopelesslydevotedtoGu It might not be exciting to you but it probably made longdistances Dad happy.