The week's loudest headline came from a draw game — a billion-dollar Powerball ticket in Illinois that still hasn't been claimed — but the week's actual market activity happened on the scratch-off rack. Florida put three new instant tickets on shelves spanning the $5 to $50 band, Mississippi's August wave settled into full distribution, and Massachusetts closed its first full month selling digital instants. Our surveillance across the states Tirage covers picked up the same signal the national numbers have shown all year: instants are where the volume is, and the premium price tiers are where the shelf strategy is moving. Here's what our data feeds and quantitative models flagged for the week ending August 24.

New games & launches

Florida: three new tickets, a combined prize pool north of $890 million

The Florida Lottery's August slate is the most consequential instant-game launch in a Tirage-covered state this week, and it's built deliberately across the price ladder (WFTV, Yahoo News):

  • POWER 20X — $5. Multiplier-driven, with 5x, 10x and 20x symbols plus $20 and $50 bonus features. Overall odds reported at 1 in 3.91.
  • CA$H IN HAND — $10. A STACKS OF CASH symbol multiplies a prize 5x; a MONEYBAG symbol wins all 15 prizes on the ticket. Overall odds reported at 1 in 3.47.
  • $500,000 CASH BLITZ — $50. The premium anchor of the group, with a $500,000 top prize.

Combined, the three carry more than $890 million in total prizes. The structural detail worth noting is the $50 tier: a price point that was a rarity on a single instant ticket five years ago is now a permanent shelf anchor in Florida. See where each sits against the rest of the state's inventory on our Florida scratch-off rankings.

Mississippi: four new games, $2 through $20

Mississippi's August wave reached retailers by August 4 and is now fully distributed, with top prizes running from $500 to $500,000 (WJTV, Yahoo News):

  • TRIPLE PLAY — $2, three ways to play and three ways to win, $20,000 top prize.
  • WILD 7s BINGO — $3, a bingo-style number-matching format with a $30,000 top prize.
  • CRUISIN' THE COAST — $5, tied to the annual Gulf Coast car event and issued in four collectible designs.
  • CASH EXPLOSION — $20, the headliner, with more than $12 million in total prizes and a $500,000 top prize.

That's a well-constructed ladder — a low-price impulse ticket, a format play, a regional collectible, and a premium anchor. Current standings for the state are on our Mississippi page.

Massachusetts: digital instants complete their first month

Mass Lottery Online launched July 28 and is now through its first full month of trading, powered by Aristocrat Interactive (Boston.com, NBC Boston). The instant-game piece is what matters here: more than 20 eInstant titles, stakes reported from $0.50 to $50, at an average payout reported near 90%. Play is restricted to those 21 and over and physically located in the state — stricter than the 18+ retail counter — and credit cards are prohibited. Officials are targeting $70 million in first-year net profit, earmarked for early childhood education grants. Massachusetts is the highest per-capita lottery state in the country, which makes this the clearest read available on whether digital instants grow the category or simply relocate it. Retail rankings sit on our Massachusetts page.

Also on the rack, and on the watch list

  • New Jersey launched Jersey Riches ($30, $3,000,000 top prize) earlier this year alongside a $10 Hot Ticket and a $1 Cash Lines, plus two Fast Play games; all remain in circulation (NJ Lottery). See our New Jersey rankings.
  • Powerball X's and O's, the MUSL–NFL crossover, begins ticket sales September 8 with a first draw September 13: $5 a play, pick 8 of the 32 NFL team logos on a tic-tac-toe grid, prizes skewed toward experiences rather than cash, expected in at least 31 states (Public Gaming, Lottery Post). Not an instant game, but it competes for the same counter space in September.
  • Texas courier litigation continues, with the operator of Lotto.com suing the Texas Lottery Commission over its ban on third-party couriers (WFAA). A ruling reshapes ticket access in a top-three US market; our Texas rankings cover the retail side either way.

What our data shows

Our quantitative models rank every instant game we track by expected value per dollar. These are among the strongest reads on the board in this week's snapshot. EV is a relative-value indicator among entertainment options — nothing more, and never a forecast for any individual ticket.

  • 50X The Money — Virginia, $20 ticket. An EV of roughly $1.30 per dollar, the highest reading on our board this week among mainstream premium tickets, with a $3,000,000 top prize and two still unclaimed.
  • 500X Money Maker — Michigan, $50 ticket. About $1.23 per dollar against a $6,000,000 top prize. Michigan's 100X at $20 reads near $1.20 with a $2,000,000 top prize — two premium tickets performing in the same state.
  • 100X — Missouri, $10 ticket. Roughly $1.11 per dollar with a $1,000,000 top prize, the best mid-price reading our surveillance turned up.
  • SCORCHING HOT 7s — Florida, $10 ticket. About $1.04 per dollar against a $2,000,000 top prize, and currently the stronger read on that rack than the new arrivals.
  • 100x The Cash — Louisiana, $20 ticket. Also near $1.04 per dollar, with a $500,000 top prize.

The wider category data supports the emphasis. Instant tickets were the only US lottery category to grow in FY2025, up 13.0%, while traditional draw-game sales fell 5.1% to $96.17 billion (Grand View Research). New York's scratch-off revenue alone has grown roughly 49% in eight years, from $4.58 billion in 2017 to about $9.5 billion in 2025. Third-party tracking from ScratchROI puts average return near 55 cents per dollar on $1 tickets versus about 77 cents on $20 tickets — a reminder that price tier and value are not the same conversation, and that neither is a reason to spend more than you meant to.

Notable winners & claimed prizes

  • Illinois — $1.04 billion Powerball, still the story of the month. A single ticket sold at a Hy-Vee gas station in Quincy matched 4-26-66-67-69 with Powerball 9 on August 12. Reports put the cash option near $450.5 million before taxes; the winner had not come forward publicly as of August 23, and Illinois gives claimants up to a year (CNN, Illinois Lottery). The selling retailer collects a $500,000 bonus.
  • Mississippi posted a cluster of claims on August 20: a Laurel man won $5,000 on a $5 scratch ticket, an Escatawpa woman won $2,700 on Cash 4, and three Cash Pop players in Tupelo, Byram and Hazlehurst claimed $1,250, $1,000 and $1,000 (Mississippi Lottery).
  • New Jersey reported 22 players winning $10,000 or more across draw and scratch-off games in the August 10–16 window, including Jersey Cash 5 jackpots of $232,298 in Ocean County and $761,184 in Camden County (NJ Lottery).
  • The August 22 Powerball drawing produced no jackpot winner but 495,302 winning tickets across all tiers and a combined prize pool of $4,113,506 (Yahoo News).

Jackpot watch

Context, not the headline:

  • Powerball — no jackpot winner August 22 (13-31-54-57-65, PB 23). Reports put the Monday August 24 estimate near $81 million, cash around $34 million (USA Mega).
  • Mega Millions — no winner August 21 (1-25-34-48-57, Mega Ball 24). Reports put the August 25 draw near $130 million, cash around $55.5 million (USA Mega).
  • Lotto Max — a Quebec ticket took the $55 million jackpot in the Friday, August 21 draw (01-04-15-18-24-25-51, bonus 13) (Daily Hive).
  • Lotto 6/49 — next draw Wednesday, August 26, with the prize reported at $18 million (Lottery Canada).
  • EuroMillions — no jackpot winner in the August 21 draw, rolling to an estimated €59 million for Tuesday, August 25 (Lottery.co.uk).

International

Canada's month has been generous at the top end: on top of the Quebec Lotto Max win, a Saskatoon ticket took the $44 million Lotto 6/49 jackpot on August 8 (CP24). On the infrastructure side, Scientific Games will modernize retail and operations for the Western Canada Lottery Corporation, including a subscription platform running up to 104 consecutive draws (PR Newswire), while OLG has selected Intralot Canada for an Ontario system overhaul targeted at 2029 (Casino.org).

In EMEA, EuroJackpot rolled a third time on August 18 at €22,767,970 (euro-jackpot.net), and a Dubai-based technician won the Dh15 million Big Ticket jackpot on a ticket bought August 19, with the live draw set for September 3 (Khaleej Times).

Bottom line

The billion-dollar Powerball ticket will keep the headlines for another week, but the shelf tells a different story: Florida and Mississippi both built full price ladders this month, Massachusetts is proving out digital instants in the highest-spending lottery state in the country, and our models are reading Virginia and Michigan premium tickets as the strongest relative value on the board.

Lottery play is entertainment, never an investment. Play only what you can afford to lose — 18+, or 21+ where required. Tirage is not affiliated with any lottery or lottery operator.