Mystery Crossword#1743
California· Launched Aug 2026· 62 days on shelf· scanned today
EV / Dollar
0.77
USA percentile
88th
of 2,154 games
Top prizes left
18
$750,000 tier
% sold-through
—
2026-10-25
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.
Mystery Crossword is a $10 scratch-off game from the California lottery (game #1743). It launched in August 2026. As of the most recent daily scan, 18 top prizes of $750,000 remain unclaimed, as published by the California lottery. Overall odds of winning any prize are 1 in 3.47. Our models put its expected value at 0.77 per dollar, returning about $0.77 per dollar on average at current prize levels, number 2 of 10 $10 games on sale in California.
THE THESIS
At 0.77 EV/$, this game ranks 2 of 10 same-price games on sale in California (median 0.74).
- 1.72% of $750,000 prizes still unclaimed at ??% sell-through — the top tier has not burned out.
- 2.Ranks in the 88th percentile of all active US scratch-off games by expected value per dollar.
Prize ladder
12 tiers · % remainingTotal unclaimed prize value: $153.74M — weighted to top-tier prizes as of latest data feed.
EV percentile · USA + state
vs 2,154 active gamesWhere 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.
Burn-down forecast · % tickets remaining
historical + P50 projectionClaim heat · 30-day strip
claims per day, all tiersClaim velocity is consistent with the 30-day mean.
Price vs EV — CA field
80 games · break-even highlightedNo 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.
ABOUT THIS GAME
Mystery Crossword (#1743): prizes, value and pace
As of October 25, 2026, 18 of the 25 $750,000 top prizes are still unclaimed; across the 12 prize levels the lottery reports, 5,726,584 of 8,653,564 prizes (66%) remain.
At current prize levels a $10 ticket returns about $7.74 on average (0.77 per dollar), which ranks 2 of 10 $10 games on sale in California, above the $10 median of 0.74. Among every California game with a computable value it is 21 of 80; nationally it sits in the 88th percentile. Like nearly every scratch-off, it pays back less than it costs on average.
Over the last 30 days, 1,505,143 prizes were claimed across the reported levels, including 5 top prizes.
California also sells another issue of Mystery Crossword: game #1708. Each issue has its own print run and prize pool, so their odds and remaining prizes differ.
Figures come from the prize data the California lottery publishes (official game page), which Tirage checks daily; this page reflects the October 25, 2026 update. See how we calculate value.
SIMILAR PLAYS IN CA
If you like this game, look at these
Same state · same price tier · similar EV signal
Know when this one turns
We alert you the day a CA game crosses break-even, and send a weekly digest of what moved.