The week of September 7–13 was the week the autumn rack reset reached the shelf. After a September 1 launch date that saw roughly a dozen states push new instant tickets out simultaneously, the second week of the month delivered the follow-through: Pennsylvania and Kentucky each rolled out multi-game waves, Halloween branding started crowding out summer titles, and the industry's seasonal calendar — not any jackpot — did the talking. Our surveillance also caught a milestone out of Kentucky and a quiet record being set in the UK scratchcard market.

New games & launches

Pennsylvania put five tickets on the rack at once. The week of September 11 brought a full-ladder wave to Pennsylvania, spanning every price tier the state sells: Cash Grab at $1 ($1,000 top prize), a licensed Ghostbusters™ ticket at $2, Fat Stacks at $5 with a $250,000 top prize, Candy-Coated Ca$h at $10 topping out at $500,000, and the headliner, GAME SHOW EXPERIENCE at $30 carrying a $1,000,000 top prize (ScratchOdds).

The Ghostbusters ticket is worth a note beyond the nostalgia. It launched in tandem in Rhode Island and Pennsylvania (Ghostbusters News), making it one of the period's few genuinely multi-state licensed instants — and Pennsylvania has run a Ghostbusters scratch-off before, back in 2016, so this is a revival rather than a debut. Prize details on the 2026 print are still settling across sources, so we'll hold off on a top-prize figure until the state's own data firms up.

Kentucky went even wider — six games on September 10. The Kentucky wave leaned hard into the season: Witches Brew Bucks at $3 ($30,000 top prize) and Chills & Bills at $5 ($50,000) are Halloween-facing, alongside $200,000 Wild Cherries at $10, Cash Overload at $5 ($50,000), Fun 5's at $5 ($75,000), and Maximum Money Blowout at $20 — the last of which is built around prize frequency rather than a headline jackpot (ScratchOdds).

Two more in-window launches rounded out the week. Virginia released BINGO, a $5 ticket with a $100,000 top prize, on September 11, and Washington put KEYS AND CASH ($10, $38,000 top prize) out on September 7.

Catching up on the September 1 wave

Our last edition closed on August 30, which means the September 1 launch date — one of the broadest synchronized release days of the year — hasn't been covered here yet. It deserves the space.

At least ten jurisdictions launched on that single date. New York led on prize size with $5,000,000 SPECTACULAR ($20), joined by MONEY VAULT MULTIPLIER ($5, $1M) and MONEY BAGS ($1). Arizona countered with Show Me the Bens, a $30 ticket carrying a $4 million top prize, plus SLINGO® Gems ($5) and $100,000 Cash ($10).

Michigan fielded four: Triple Diamond Payout ($20, $2M), Silver & Gold Cashword ($10, $500K), Cash Vault ($5, $500K) and Wild Time Series ($2). North Carolina ran a full "Taxes Paid" family at $2, $5, $10 and $20 — and the structure is the interesting part: the $20 ticket is branded $2,000,000 Taxes Paid but lists a $3 million top prize, the gross-up that covers the winner's tax bill. It's a design that advertises the take-home rather than the headline, which is rarer than it should be.

Elsewhere on September 1: Indiana launched SIZZLIN 7s ($30, $700K), WILD CHERRY ($5), SPOOKY LOOT ($2) and RAKE IT IN! ($1); South Carolina added Epic Riches ($10, $500K) and High Voltage ($5, $200K); Mississippi ran a four-rung Lucky 7s ladder from $1 to $10; Virginia added Platinum 7s ($20, $2M); Minnesota put out four including $500,000 Multiplier ($20); and New Mexico released Frogger ($3) and Lucky Stars ($1).

Just off that date, New Jersey launched a gemstone trio on September 2 — Black Opal 7's ($20, $1M), Emerald 7's ($5, $200K) and Sapphire 7's ($2). Missouri went first on August 31 with RED HOT MONEY ($20, $2M) and a licensed SPACE INVADERS™ ticket at $5. And Wisconsin did something unusual on September 4: CROSSWORD MILLIONAIRE at $50 with a $1 million top prize — a crossword at a price point normally reserved for multiplier and bonus-cash games.

What didn't move

Worth noting for anyone watching a particular rack: Florida has launched nothing in September, with POWER 20X and CA$H IN HAND from August 10 still the newest tickets. Georgia hasn't released since August 18, and Ohio is the outlier — its newest instant, Spectacular Riches, dates to June 29. Looking forward, Colorado and Louisiana both launched four-game waves on September 14, and Texas has a September 21 batch queued including a Limited Edition Mega Loteria at $10.

What our data shows

Our quantitative models read expected value per dollar across every ticket we track. A few standouts as of this week's snapshot:

  • Virginia — 50X The Money ($20): about $1.49 per dollar, with two $3 million top prizes still out there. This is the third straight week it has topped our board, and it has strengthened each time — we read it near $1.30 in mid-August and about $1.35 late last month.
  • Michigan — 500X Money Maker ($50): roughly $1.23 per dollar, one $6 million top prize remaining. The strongest premium-tier read we have.
  • Michigan — 100X ($20): about $1.21 per dollar, one $2 million top prize left.
  • Missouri — 100X ($10): approximately $1.12 per dollar, one $1 million top prize outstanding.
  • Indiana — CASH EXTRAVAGANZA ($50): about $1.03 per dollar, one $3 million top prize left.

The pattern our feeds keep surfacing is that the strongest reads sit on older games late in their print run, not on the fresh September launches. New tickets have every prize intact, which is the thing most players anchor on — but it is not the same as favorable value, and this week's numbers make that gap plain.

Notable winners & claimed prizes

Mississippi produced the week's biggest instant win. A Gulfport man claimed a $1 million top prize on the state's $30 Millionaire Maker, on a ticket bought at a Shell station in Long Beach. He is the third player to take a $1 million prize since the game launched in January, and seven $1 million top prizes remain in circulation. His stated plan: a new vehicle, and saving the rest (report).

Georgia had a genuinely loud week. An Augusta player claimed a $1 million top prize on the 50 Xtra scratcher on September 11, from a ticket sold at Richmond Hill Market. A second Augusta ticket returned $297,933 on Fantasy 5 the same day. Most striking, though: two players hit $156,168 each on the same $50/$100 Frenzy Quick Win game within three days — one in Atlanta on September 10, one in Columbus on September 12. Across the week, Georgia players claimed $37,639,441 in scratch-off prizes (roundup).

In New Jersey, nine players won draw and scratch-off prizes of at least $10,000 between September 7 and 13 (NJ Lottery).

A milestone worth flagging: the Kentucky Lottery announced on September 8 that it has now passed $8 billion in cumulative funding for the state since its 1989 launch. Fiscal 2026 sales hit $2.38 billion, up $224 million year over year, with a record $1.78 billion returned to players in prizes (WBKO). Two days later, the state put six new instants on the rack.

Jackpot watch

Context only — the big draws were quiet.

  • Powerball: the September 12 draw was worth an estimated $236 million with no jackpot winner, rolling to $253 million on September 14, which also went unclaimed (Powerball).
  • Mega Millions: every September draw through the 11th rolled over — $193 million on September 8 and $209 million on September 11 (results archive).
  • Lotto Max: the September 11 jackpot went unwon, pushing the next draw to an estimated CA$40 million plus 40 MAXPLUS prizes of $100,000 (Lottery Canada).

International

EuroMillions finally cracked. The September 11 draw — number 1,980 — paid out €111,516,282 to a single ticket purchased in Austria, ending the rollover run we were tracking in late August (results).

The more consequential international story is a UK retail record. Allwyn's "When It's Gold Outside" scratchcard began reaching selected stores in early September: a £10 ticket with four top prizes of £4 million — double the previous £2 million UK scratchcard record (Allwyn). It also marks the return of the £10 scratchcard price point to the UK after roughly seven years (Better Retailing). That mirrors what US data feeds have shown all year: the instant category keeps shifting weight toward higher price points.

Bottom line

The autumn reset is fully underway — Pennsylvania and Kentucky headlined a week defined by seasonal changeover rather than jackpot drama, and the premium end of the rack keeps getting heavier on both sides of the Atlantic. But our models still read the best value on mature games deep into their runs, not on the shiny new tickets sharing the shelf with them.

Lottery games are entertainment, never an investment. Play only what you can afford to lose. Must be 18+ (21+ where required). Tirage is not affiliated with any lottery.