CA · #1590 · $20

Instant Prize Crossword

California· Launched Sep 2023· 1008 days on shelf· scanned yesterday

Lottery site

EV / Dollar

0.78

USA percentile

89th

of 1,870 games

Top prizes left

9

$2,000,000 tier

% sold-through

2026-06-21

Forecast sellout

18+ only. For entertainment purposes — not financial advice. Scratch-offs have a negative expected return on average. 1-800-GAMBLER if you need help.

Instant Prize Crossword is a $20 scratch-off game from the California (game #1590). It launched in September 2023. As of the most recent daily scan, 9 top prizes of $2M remain unclaimed, as published by the California. Overall odds of winning any prize are 1 in 3.10. Our models put its expected value at 0.78 per dollar, among the stronger plays in its price tier, returning about $0.78 per dollar on average at current prize levels.

THE THESIS

At 0.78 EV/$, this game offers above-average expected return relative to its price tier, with meaningful prize coverage remaining.

  1. 1.33% of $2.0M prizes still unclaimed at ??% sell-through — the top tier has not burned out.
  2. 2.Ranks in the 89th percentile of all active US scratch-off games by expected value per dollar.
Read the full case ↓

Prize ladder

13 tiers · % remaining
$2M
9/27
33%
$25K
21/55
$10K
22/56
$5K
101/280
$2K
3.1K/8.4K
$1K
8.3K/22.5K
$500
21.5K/59.0K
$250
30.9K/84.3K
$200
65.8K/181.9K
$100
296.1K/829.4K
$50
557.4K/1.6M
$25
1.3M/3.6M
$20
1.6M/4.4M

Total unclaimed prize value: $187.55M — weighted to top-tier prizes as of latest data feed.

EV percentile · USA + state

vs 1,870 active games

Where this game ranks versus all active US scratch-offs (USA) and all active CA games (state). Better means more unclaimed prize value relative to remaining tickets.

USA median · 50th0.67 EV/$
CA median0.70 EV/$
YOU · 89th
USA: 89th percentileCA: 74th percentile

Burn-down forecast · % tickets remaining

historical + P50 projection
Not enough historical data to render chart.

Claim heat · 30-day strip

claims per day, all tiers
30d ago15dlast 7d · -12%

Claim velocity is consistent with the 30-day mean.

Price vs EV — CA field

58 games · break-even highlighted
$0$15$420.000.250.500.97YOU

No other active CA games currently clear break-even.

Top-prize claim cadence · the roll

Top-prize claim history is not published for this state.

States that report individual claim events (TX, NY, PA, FL, NC) will show a full timeline here. This game's state does not currently publish that data.

SIMILAR PLAYS IN CA

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Same state · same price tier · similar EV signal