How to Scan a Lottery Ticket without Scratching It

You saw the title! And that’s probably why you clicked through to this article. Now you’re asking yourself if that’s even possible at all. You’re not alone. Scratch-off enthusiasts have been looking for ways to crack the code, exploring so many different strategies.

Obviously, having some clue that a ticket is a winner without scratching it would be the best.

There are dozens of theories out there about eventual giveaways. We’ll take a look at the most popular ones and try to determine if it’s really possible to get your hands on a scratch-off ticket that’s a definite winner.

Is There a Way to Know?

Without further ado, let’s answer the most important question.

There’s no actual, practical, and 100 percent foolproof way of telling whether a lotto ticket is a winning one. If there were such a strategy, nobody would be buying dozens and dozens of tickets that aren’t worth anything.

Scratch-off tickets are printed in batches, using the same inks, materials, and paper. Hence, it’s impossible to tell the difference between a winning one and all of the others. If there’s any irregularity in the appearance of a ticket, that could be attributed to a glitch rather than an actual sign from destiny. Sorry to disappoint you but that’s just the way things are!

Also, there’s no way to actually “see” through the scratch portion of the card in order to determine exactly what symbol it hides. Usually, the material that’s placed on top of the sensitive information is latex. It’s completely opaque before you scratch it. There’s no way to see through latex, no matter what experiments you subject it to.

What Have People Done to Break the Code?

Now that we have the facts out of the way, we can look at what people have done in their attempts to crack the scratch-off code.

Some believe it’s possible to tell if a ticket is a winner by the serial number printed at the bottom of the scratch-off card.

And that’s actually the case. The serial number is unique for each scratch-off ticket. It can be scanned at a lotto venue. The operator will know exactly how much the ticket is worth and what price will have to be paid without needing to check the symbols.

The problem is that the serial number is covered by the same latex ink that is put over all of the other scratch-off areas. This is a security measure that’s undertaken for the exact same reason of keeping people from attempting to scam the lottery. Once you scratch off the serial code area, you’re already in possession of the ticket and that’s when you’ll know if you’ve won anything.

If you’ve done a bit of research on the topic, you’ve probably seen scratch-off ticket scanners on the market. These are readily available from numerous websites. Some Chinese manufacturers make lottery ticket scanners available for as little as 20 dollars.

That’s a definite small investment if it could give you a winning ticket, right?

The problem with such scanners is that they will need to scan the serial number that’s printed underneath the latex ink. Also, what database is the scanner using to give you information? You should be asking yourself such questions before investing in anything. Otherwise, you’ll definitely end up with a worthless piece of plastic that would do absolutely nothing for your odds of winning the lottery.

Can You Actually Improve Your Odds of Buying a Winning Scratch Card?

There are a few things you can actually do instead of attempting to guess which ticket is a winning one without scratching it.

The first tip is an obvious one but so many players forget to do it. The back of your scratch-off ticket features important information about the prize distribution and the odds. By odds, the lottery operators mean the number of winning tickets out of the entire printed batch.

For example, if your ticket has one in 10 odds, that means that one ticket out of every 10 will be a winning one. It’s impossible to tell if the prize is going to be big but you’ll have a fairly good idea about the probability of winning. the smaller that number, the better your chances of winning. In such instances, however, tickets are probably going to be costlier. The same applies to scratch-off lotteries that have big prizes.

Some people also employ the strategy of getting consecutive tickets out of a batch. The logic here is that if you don’t go random but rather pick tickets in the order they’ve been printed, you’ll improve your odds of winning something. For some people, this approach has worked well. Others didn’t really experience much of a difference. Give it a try with a couple of tickets and you’ll know if that strategy is meant to be your lucky one.

Finally, keep track of big prizes won in your favorite scratch-off games. If there are two big prizes and one of them has fallen, your odds of claiming a big reward goes down exponentially. It’s a much better idea to choose an alternative game that still has a big number of significant prizes available for grabs.

Needless to say, none of these approaches guarantee winnings. They simply improve your odds. Remember that having fun and not taking the lottery too seriously is the best way to play. Getting too caught up in strategies and winning attempts can end up costing you a lot more than you’ll actually see back in the event of winning something.