Review of Maryland Lottery's Gold Rush Family of Scratch Off Games

On May 20, 2019, the Maryland Lottery came out with a family of scratch off lottery games called Gold Rush. The tickets start from $1 and go up to $20. Below are the overall odds of winning for each game (Source: Maryland Lottery Website), the top prize and the number of top prizes remaining as of the day this blog entry was posted:

$1 - Overall Odds: 1 in 4.57 - Top Prize: $1,000 - Top Prizes Remaining 29 (started with 30)

$2 - Overall Odds: 1 in 4.24 - Top Prize: $10,000 - Top Prizes Remaining all 5

$5 - Overall Odds: 1 in 3.84 - Top Prize: $50,000 - Top Prizes Remaining 7 (started with 8)

$10 - Overall Odds: 1 in 3.44 - Top Prize: $100,000 - Top Prizes Remaining all 5

$20 - Overall Odds: 1 in 2.89 - Top Prize: $1,000,000* - Top Prizes Remaining all 7

* The $1,000,000 prize is paid out over 20 years. There is a cash option but the winner won't receive $1,000,000 if they take that option.

On the overall odds, these are the odds for the entire game meaning that OVERALL, there will be 1 winner in so many tickets. Players can do better at times and at times they can do worse. I saw that today when I played $2,000,000 Richer. The overall odds for that game are 1 in 2.82 BUT, the book I played was averaging 1 winner in 5 tickets. Conversely, I played the $20 Gold Rush game and hit 3 winners in 5 tickets!

All these games have 2 instant win features. The first is a wad of money symbol. When you uncover this symbol, you automatically win the prize below. The second is a gold bar symbol. If you uncover this symbol, you automatically win the prize times whatever the game multiplier is. Example: you uncover a gold bar symbol on the $1 game and the prize amount is $2. The multiplier for that game is 5 so, you've automatically $20. The more expensive the ticket the bigger the multiplier is with the top one being 100 times whatever the prize is ($20 game). Below are the different instant win multipliers for the different games:

$1 - X5 - 5 times the prize shown

$2 - X10 - 10 times the prize shown

$5 - X20 - 20 times the prize shown

$10 - X50 - 50 times the prize shown

$20 - X100 - 100 times the prize shown

Another interesting feature of this new family of scratch off games is that Maryland Lottery is promoting it for the month of June with their rewards program. Normally, you would need either $50 worth of losing tickets for each spin on the rewards wheel (up to 5 times) or $125 in losing tickets for each spin on the rewards wheel (no limit on spins as long as you have $125 worth of losing tickets for each spin). However, for the month of June, if you get one losing ticket for each game i.e. one $1 losing ticket, one $2 losing ticket, one $5 losing ticket, one $10 losing ticket and one $20 losing ticket, you get a spin on the rewards wheel (a maximum of 5 spins) where you can win either reward points or draw points. Also, please note, you must be a member of Maryland Lottery's Rewards Program to get the spins and, you must enter the losing tickets via the rewards website or via the app.

Lastly, for those who are interested, here are the number of winning numbers you get that you could potentially match and the number of chances you get to hit for each game:

$1 - 2 numbers - 6 chances

$2 - 3 numbers - 10 chances

$5 - 4 numbers - 15 chances

$10 - 5 numbers - 25 chances

$20 - 5 numbers - 30 chances

Overall, I found this a nice family of scratch off games that was easy enough to understand and play. I was surprised that Maryland Lottery didn't extend it to the $30 games as well however $2,000,000 Richer hasn't been out that long and that may be why they didn't. As these games are the newest and latest games out, players may want to give them a try though please do gamble responsibly if you do. You aren't guaranteed to win your fortune playing. Good luck to you!

Disclaimer: I don't have ANY connection with the Maryland Lottery and all comments on this post are MY own. I didn't receive ANY remuneration of any kind for this post or any free tickets so, I could play each of the games. The source for the overall odds and prizes remaining is the Maryland Lottery website. I got the top prize amounts and the multiplier numbers from the tickets I bought with MY own money.