District of Columbia · Game #1659

DC 3 Scratcher

$3per ticket

Sale status unconfirmed · Collected Oct 15, 2026, 9:15 AM EDT

Latest lottery dataData updated Oct 15, 2026

Game summary

What to know about this ticket

Take a closer look ↓

Estimate went upEstimate went downFewer prizesCount changed

Our estimate

Average payout

$2.08

Across lots of tickets, we estimate an average of $2.08 back for each $3 ticket.

$0.69 back per $1 spent · -$0.92 after the ticket cost

Prize pool changed

What does this mean?

Think of a big pile of tickets: this is the prize money per ticket on average. It doesn’t tell you what your next ticket will pay.

Our estimate

Payout without the jackpot

$1.70

For a $3 ticket, the estimated average payout is $1.70 when the $35,000 top prize is treated as $0.

Return vs. ticket price, without the jackpot: -43.2%

Prize pool changed

What does this mean?

Big jackpots can make a ticket's average look much better even though winning one is extremely unlikely. This number shows its estimated value if the biggest prize pays $0.

Our estimate

Chance of Any Prize

26.0%

About 1 in 3.84 remaining tickets

Includes the top prize and prizes that only return your ticket cost. A prize does not necessarily mean a profit.

Prize pool changed

What does this mean?

This estimates the chance that a remaining ticket has any published prize. A winning ticket may only break even, so this is not your chance of making money.

From the lottery

Top prize

$35,000

2 still unclaimed in the lottery data.

Prize pool changed

What does this mean?

How many of the game's biggest prizes the lottery says are still unclaimed. This does not establish whether tickets are still for sale.

Our estimate

Chance of coming out ahead

9.9%

A prize worth more than the ticket price. Winning your ticket cost back doesn’t count as coming out ahead.

Our estimate

Chance of the top prize

<0.1%

About 1 in 92,376.65 remaining tickets. This is an estimate.

Remaining prizes and tickets

What’s left in this game

See every prize amount ↓

Worked out from lottery data

Unclaimed prizes

48,111

Out of 63,114 prizes in the source table.

76.2% left15,003 already paid

Prize pool changed

Counts include tickets already sold whose prizes haven’t been claimed.

From the lottery

Top prizes left

Out of 2 top prizes originally.

100.0% left0 no longer remaining

Prize pool changed

From the lottery report for this game.

Our estimate

Estimated tickets left

184,753

242,358 tickets estimated at the start.

Prize pool changed

Tickets left are an estimate. Unclaimed prizes don’t tell us exactly how many tickets are still for sale.

First on sale: May 6, 2026

We use lottery data to estimate average payouts and tickets left. These are estimates, not promises about your next ticket. See how we work it out →

Original vs. current

Original and current numbers

See the original numbers next to what we estimate for the tickets left.

Odds of any prize

Original at launch: 1 in 3.8426.0% chance · Lottery-published
Latest estimate: 1 in 3.8426.0% chance · PrizeGauge estimate

Approximately unchanged from launch

Average prize payout

Original at launch: $2.00Per ticket · Estimate using original data
Latest estimate: $2.08Per ticket · PrizeGauge estimate

$0.08 per ticket higher than launch

A smaller “1 in” number means a higher chance. Any prize includes prizes that only return the ticket cost. Original odds may be rounded; current values are estimates, not guaranteed outcomes.

Compare the price and average payouts

Here’s how the ticket price compares with the average prize payout we estimate. Your ticket could pay more, less, or nothing.

Ticket costs: $3.00
Estimated average payout: $2.08
Without the top prize: $1.70

What do these numbers mean?

From the lottery

Published by the lottery.

Worked out from lottery data

Worked out from the lottery’s own numbers.

Our estimate

Our best estimate, using data and assumptions we explain.

Average payout: Think of a big pile of tickets: this is the prize money per ticket on average. It doesn’t tell you what your next ticket will pay.
Return vs. ticket price: How the estimated average payout stacks up against what you spend. A minus sign means the average payout is less than the ticket price.
Payout without the jackpot: Big jackpots can make a ticket's average look much better even though winning one is extremely unlikely. This number shows its estimated value if the biggest prize pays $0.
Chance of Any Prize: This estimates the chance that a remaining ticket has any published prize. A winning ticket may only break even, so this is not your chance of making money.
Top Prizes Left: How many of the game's biggest prizes the lottery says are still unclaimed. This does not establish whether tickets are still for sale.
Estimated Tickets Left: Our estimate of how many tickets may remain. The lottery does not publish this exact number, and sold but unclaimed tickets can affect it.
How reliable is the estimate?: How much trust to put in the estimate. It is not your chance of winning. Unknown means we don’t have a rating.

What does this mean?

Each ticket is a gamble. Better-looking numbers don’t promise a winning ticket.

Take a closer look: prizes, calculations & sources

The numbers behind the ticket

How we work it out →

Our estimate

Estimated average payout today

$2.08

Estimated prize payout per ticket

Our estimate

EV Without the Top Prize

$1.70

Average prize value after treating the biggest prize as $0

Our estimate

ROI Without the Top Prize

-43.2%

How that alternate average payout compares with ticket price

Our estimate

Original EV

$2.00

Launch payout with modeled prize valuations

Our estimate

Modeled ROI

-30.6%

Estimated net return / ticket price

Our estimate

Average payout per $1 spent

$0.69

A 70¢ payout per $1 spent means a 30¢ average loss

Our estimate

Average return after the ticket cost

-$0.92

Estimated average prize payout minus the ticket price

From the lottery

Top prizes remaining

Original top prizes: 2

Our estimate

Estimated Tickets Left

184,753

An estimate, not an exact count from the lottery

Our estimate

Analytics availability

Launch: available

Full current EV: available

Without top prize: available

Chance of any prize: available

Confidence rating not published

We use lottery data to estimate average payouts and tickets left. These are estimates, not promises about your next ticket. See how we work it out →

How this estimate was made

Launch basis: published inception odds. Inventory basis: inferred from prize odds.

The lottery reports don’t give us enough reliable information to show this number.

Model assumptions

The complete original winning-prize counts and published overall odds describe one unchanged print cohort.
At least two tiers with 500 or more original prizes estimate remaining ticket inventory, weighted by original prize count; prize claims can lag ticket sales.

What goes into this estimate

Uses the complete prize table and changes in prize counts.

Original prize table: complete. Remaining prize table: complete.

See calculated counts and prize-value assumptions

These are the model’s inputs. A calculated or estimated count is separate from the literal count in the prize table.

Count and value inputs considered by the model
Prize wording	Value used	Original count used	Remaining count used
$35,000	$35,000.00Published cash value	2Published count	2Published count
$3,500	$3,500.00Published cash value	8Published count	7Published count
$500	$500.00Published cash value	58Published count	41Published count
$50	$50.00Published cash value	733Published count	545Published count
$30	$30.00Published cash value	1,688Published count	1,254Published count
$20	$20.00Published cash value	4,850Published count	3,648Published count
$10	$10.00Published cash value	7,275Published count	5,500Published count
$6	$6.00Published cash value	9,700Published count	7,343Published count
$3	$3.00Published cash value	14,550Published count	11,015Published count
$0	$0.00Published cash value	24,250Published count	18,756Published count

From the official source

The lottery’s prize table

Original overall odds: 1 in 3.84

These are the source’s published rows. A dash means the count is not published. Calculated original totals are labeled, and any derived remaining counts appear separately in the model inputs.

Swipe to see all columns →

Prize amounts and counts from this report. Current odds and average payout contributions, where shown, are estimates.
Prize	Original prizes	Prizes already paid	Original odds · from lottery	Remaining prizes
$35,000 Count sources & details Original odds source →Retrieved Oct 15, 2026, 1:16 PM UTC Response fingerprint `64fd7498213af9d5faf9712694fa6a198d6c9f4855d614bdeac14daf3fe9b602`	2	0	1 in 121,250	2100.0% of 2 left
$3,500	8	1	—	787.5% of 8 left
$500	58	17	—	4170.7% of 58 left
$50	733	188	—	54574.4% of 733 left
$30	1,688	434	—	1,25474.3% of 1,688 left
$20	4,850	1,202	—	3,64875.2% of 4,850 left
$10	7,275	1,775	—	5,50075.6% of 7,275 left
$6	9,700	2,357	—	7,34375.7% of 9,700 left
$3	14,550	3,535	—	11,01575.7% of 14,550 left
$0	24,250	5,494	—	18,75677.3% of 24,250 left

About the estimates

Methodology & source

Each lottery publishes different information. We use the available game data and stated assumptions to estimate average payouts and tickets left. An unclaimed prize count is not a count of tickets still for sale.

Published prize observations stay separate from estimates. The model uses this game's reported coverage, ticket inventory and count assumptions; unavailable values retain their source explanations.

How we work it out →

Game history

See how the numbers have changed

A gap means we don’t have a number

We keep the last update of each day, using Eastern Time. If a day has no number, we leave a gap. We don’t fill in guesses.

Past numbers include calculations from archived prize reports. This covers the dates we have collected. 7-day change: insufficient history. 30-day change: insufficient history.

Estimated average payout Our estimate · dollars per ticket

Prize pool changed

Extra decimals show estimate changes smaller than 1¢. We calculate daily changes before rounding.

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See the daily numbers in a table

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Estimated average payout observations
Date	Estimated average payout	Change from previous day
Oct 14, 2026	$2.0829	No daily comparison
Oct 15, 2026	$2.0835	Prize pool changed

Prizes remaining From the daily prize table · count and share left

48,111 prizes left63,114 total · 76.2% left · Oct 15, 2026

Prize pool changed

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See the daily numbers in a table

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Prizes remaining observations
Date	Prizes remaining	Unclaimed count	Total prizes	Change from previous day
Oct 14, 2026	76.3%	48,159	63,114	No daily comparison
Oct 15, 2026	76.2%	48,111	63,114	Prize pool changed

Top prizes remaining From the lottery · published count

Prize pool changed

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See the daily numbers in a table

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Top prizes remaining observations
Date	Top prizes remaining	Change from previous day
Oct 14, 2026	2	No daily comparison
Oct 15, 2026	2	Prize pool changed

Estimated tickets left Our estimate · ticket count

Prize pool changed

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See the daily numbers in a table

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Estimated tickets left observations
Date	Estimated tickets left	Change from previous day
Oct 14, 2026	184,938	No daily comparison
Oct 15, 2026	184,753	Prize pool changed