INSTANT $500
New York· Launched Mar 2023· 1338 days on shelf· scanned today
EV / Dollar
0.56
USA percentile
9th
of 2,201 games
Top prizes left
708
$500 tier
% sold-through
—
2026-11-04
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 $500 is a $10 scratch-off game from the New York lottery (game #1561). It launched in March 2023. As of the most recent daily scan, 708 top prizes of $500 remain unclaimed, as published by the New York lottery. Overall odds of winning any prize are 1 in 4.19. Our models put its expected value at 0.56 per dollar, returning about $0.56 per dollar on average at current prize levels, number 15 of 17 $10 games on sale in New York.
THE THESIS
At 0.56 EV/$, this game ranks 15 of 17 same-price games on sale in New York (median 0.64).
- 1.1% of $500 prizes still unclaimed at ??% sell-through — the top tier has not burned out.
- 2.Ranks in the 9th percentile of all active US scratch-off games by expected value per dollar.
Prize ladder
7 tiers · % remainingTotal unclaimed prize value: $2.00M — weighted to top-tier prizes as of latest data feed.
EV percentile · USA + state
vs 2,201 active gamesWhere this game ranks versus all active US scratch-offs (USA) and all active NY 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 — NY field
131 games · break-even highlightedNo other active NY 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
INSTANT $500: prizes, value and pace
As of November 4, 2026, 708 of the 56,773 $500 top prizes are still unclaimed; across the 7 prize levels the lottery reports, 85,301 of 4,427,826 prizes (2%) remain; the thinnest level is $500, with 1% of its prizes left.
At current prize levels a $10 ticket returns about $5.58 on average (0.56 per dollar), which ranks 15 of 17 $10 games on sale in New York, below the $10 median of 0.64. Among every New York game with a computable value it is 111 of 131; nationally it sits in the 9th percentile. Like nearly every scratch-off, it pays back less than it costs on average.
Over the last 30 days, 5,069 prizes were claimed across the reported levels, including 66 top prizes.
Figures come from the prize data the New York lottery publishes (official game page), which Tirage checks daily; this page reflects the November 4, 2026 update. See how we calculate value.
SIMILAR PLAYS IN NY
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 NY game crosses break-even, and send a weekly digest of what moved.