Lottery Scratchcards - Urban Myth?

[Booldawg]

I have a mate who says he always buy a lottery scratch-card if its near the end of the roll, maintaining a theory that they are usually prize winning cards.

Likely to be bs?

[DJHawkes]

yes very likely. real lottery card players keep a check on the current games and can find out what amount and level of prizes are left unclaimed and target a particular game.

[LazyGun]

What's his reasoning, what forms the basis for the theory? Sounds like bs to me.. :)

[Zacs-Master]

Is he driving round in a Bentley?

[DJHawkes]

games go out of date and all unsold cards on a dead game are returned and will never win. it's always worth checking to see how long a game has left and what prizes remain unclaimed, because camelot know the statistics and the prize levels they have put into each new game card series.

[boxtops]

I don't understand his logic at all. It's random number-picking at the Lottery.

[LazyGun]

So - Booldawgs mate has this theory that if a scratch card roll is near its end its worth investing in, that somehow your chances of a win are improved.

DJ then talks about current games etc which sounds interesting.

As a scratchcard virgin however, never having bought one in my life, I am still not quite sure I understand DJs point, nor what could inform Booldawgs friends theory. My own opinion would be inline with Boxtops.

Perhaps DJ could expand upon this current games and available prizes thing a bit?

[Connemmara]

I go for the lowest paying-out money ie £3,000 as I reckon there would be more of them around than one million etc.

[Prudie]

There must be some control over which cards are printed with winnings on otherwise statistically you could get all the big wins on consecutive tickets.

[Davethedog]

This cannot be true. Cards are manufactured as a long continuous strip, not as individual rolls. There may be a a print run of 100,000 cards. this would be then cut every 50 or 100 cards (whatever is in a roll) so if, when the roll appears in a shop, the last card on a particular roll may have been the 50th or 100,000th card printed and obviously any number divisable by 50 or 100 inbetween.

Anything else would suggest, the game is manipulated, but why would it be?

[Booldawg]

I know that all cards are serial numbered and when you claim a prize the checkout operator enters the serial number into the camelot computer which verifies the winning amount to that particular card.

It is audited in some way in terms of how many winning cards are out there. Not sure why they would be in any particular order in a roll of cards though.

[paddywak]

you used to be able to go to a site on the teletext and check just what had been won on a particular card. if for instance you played card No 10 with 3 x Million pound pay outs it would tell you the details of how many jackpots were still available plus a break down of all the lower prizes.I presume the same thing is available on their web site.

[Mamyalynne]

People who like a gamble, also like to think they have a system - it is a form of allowing themselves to carry on

[DJHawkes]

It is very simple, Camelot issue packs of scratch cards for different demoninations, starting at £1 and going up to the £10 card. A fixed percentage of the pack have to be winners and a fixed percentage of the game have to be the jackpot amount, they issue hundreds of packs of each game, there does not have to be a jackpot prize in each pack, only the percentage of winning cards, which means every winning card in a particular pack may just be a £1 prize or face value prize. The game overall has a closure date, and if all the jackpots have not been won close to the closure date, Camelot advertise the fact. This is public information but it does not necessarily mean the jackpots will be won, anyone one armed with the information about a game due to close with unclaimed jackpots would have to locate every pack still on sale in every outlet and buy every remaining unsold ticket, impossible to do.

[aelmpvw]

if i'm in a queue for a scratchcard with another punter he'll get the winner

[DJHawkes]

packs are not numbered in one continuous roll, depending on the face value, they start at zero and end at either 160 (£1) 80 ( £2) etc, i know this as I issue and validate them at work as well as book the card deliveries in.

[DJHawkes]

http://www.national-lottery.com/national-lottery-scratchcard-prizes.asp

[Baldric]

LG have a look here

https://www.national-lottery.co.uk/player/p/help/scratchcard/info_prizes.ftl

[Booldawg]

So I'm guessing his theory is based upon the notion that all rolls contain x amount of cards with y percent of winning cards in each pack - but winning cards printed at random. If the print run gets towards the end of the roll and hasnt met its y percent quotia then it'll contain more winning cards towards the end to meet this quotia.

[LazyGun]

Thanks for the link, baldric, and the expanded explanation, DJ. This has intrigued me a bit now, so will have to do some research when i get time ;)

[DJHawkes]

he would have to know more detail to be sure of a winner at the end, and as camelot don't advertise the winning cards after they are claimed, he wouldn't know which numerical series of a particular game had paid out all it's pack prizes. every pack is uniquely numbered, if a customer comes in with a defaced card but we an read the game code on the back, camelot helpline staff can identify when and where that individual game card was sold