Review of Maryland Lottery's Win $50 or $100 Scratch Off Game

The Maryland Lottery came out with what has to be one of its most unique scratch off games. It's called Win $50 or $100. The game brags that it has 9 times more $100 prizes than their other games. What they don't brag about is that the game also has the WORST overall odds I've ever seen in a Maryland Lottery scratch off game - 1 in 9.23! Prior to this game, the worst overall odds I'd seen were in their $1 scratch off games which were usually around 1 in 4.5. I suspect the reason the odds are so bad is because of the prizes in the game - you can only win $50 or $100 which is also different from other past games. Because of these prize amounts, they have to sell a LOT of $10 tickets to make up for the prizes. I heard of 1 case where a person bought 20! tickets and didn't win ANYTHING. In my own experience and shock, I had to buy 17! tickets once before I hit for $100. I was so stunned by all the losers that I went back and double checked them all. This game really is a GAMBLE to play because of the poor odds though you never know in this game. At Friendship Liquors in West Friendship, Maryland, I had 7 losers before I hit for $50. With a different book in the same store, I hit for $100 on the FIRST ticket I bought. This game is very hard to predict because of the terrible overall odds.

Because of the terrible odds and my experiences with this game, I give it a thumbs down. You really are taking a big gamble playing it. Thankfully, they didn't make it a $20 or $30 game as the amount of losers you can hit in this game would really be horrendous. I'd definitely look for another $10 game to play like their Willie Wonka game which I've particularly enjoyed. Good luck to all those players out there.

Update November 9, 2020: This game is back in Maryland. I would guess the game sold well enough that they decided to bring it back. It has the same terrible odds and the same 2 prizes: $50 and $100. It remains a huge crap shoot if you play it (I have). If you're feeling particularly lucky, it might be worth 1 or 2 plays otherwise, I stay away from this game. You have really good chances of coming out a loser in this game.

Update April 8, 2026: This game is on its 3rd Edition and has been changed where they added a $200 prize. It's now called win $50, $100 or $200. Its overall odds of winning are 1 in 9.15 (Source: a ticket I bought from Maryland Lottery with my own money 💰). This is the cheaper version of win $100, $200 and $500.

Review of Maryland Lottery's Lucky 777 Game

On May 19, 2025, Maryland Lottery launched its Lucky 7's games. The games have similarities to Maryland Lottery's Hot 7 games. For starters, There is a family of games starting at $1 and going up to $20 like Hot 7's. They offer most of the same multiples i.e. 3X up to 7X (on the $20 game), the same prize amounts $1,000 to $1 million dollars. They have the same junk symbols when you don't win. The games differ in that on the Hot 7's games, you had to hit a fire symbol whereas on the Lucky 7's games, you must hit either a black 7 or a red 7 (if you hit this, the prize is doubled). Another difference is that at the top of the ticket on the Lucky 7's games, there will be chances for instant win prizes depending on if a symbol shows up example: piggy bank which wins you $57 or Please Try Again. The prizes on the instant win windows start at $57 and go up to $507 depending on the price of the ticket. At the time of this post, all six $1 million prizes were unclaimed. Losing tickets do qualify for spins with Lottery Rewards where you can win free money ($1 or $2), free play (the various number games), prize points (where you can get various stuff) and draw points (where you can get entries for various drawings). Entering the losing tickets can be work at times BUT, at least this way, you can get something back for your losing tickets. Kudos to Maryland Lottery for that. Overall odds on the different games can range up to 1 in 3.10 for the $20 game (source: a ticket I bought with my own money).

That's it for my review. Good luck to all players out there. Please play responsibly. All comments on here are my own and, I'm not in any way connected with the Maryland Lottery. I didn't receive any compensation for this review (I felt it was time to post a blog entry. It's been over a year since the last one. Time flies.). Cheers!

Review of Maryland Lottery's Electric 8s Game

The Maryland Lottery recently came out with 3 new games: Triple 333 ($2), Winning 7 ($5) and Electric 8 ($10). Because they're new, I recently played all 3 to see what they were about. This review will give the particulars on their Electric 8s game.

The game costs $10, has overall odds of 1 in 3.43 (per 1 of the tickets I bought) and has a grand prize of $88,000. At the time of this review, there are all 8 grand prizes out there. The game was launched on November 24, 2023.

The game has instant win features as well as the standard matching 1 or more of the 5 winning numbers. The game is unique in that at the top of the ticket are 8 Electric Bonus spots which the player scratches off. If any of them reveal a prize amount, the player automatically wins that amount. According to the ticket I'm looking at while writing this review, you can hit more than once in these bonus spots. There's also a instant win feature in the standard winning numbers part of the ticket. In the area where you scratch to see if any of your numbers match 1 or more of the winning numbers, if you see an 8 symbol, you automatically win double the prize shown. Prize amounts for this game per the ticket I'm looking at are: $10, $20, $50, $100, $200, $500, $1,000, $10,000 and $88,000. Any prize amount of $1,000 or more must be validated at the Maryland Lottery Customer Resource Center in Baltimore, Maryland.

Overall, I found the game a nice game to play though not necessarily any better than some of the other games Maryland Lottery has. The game has decent overall odds of winning though you can always do better or worse. Those odds are the OVERALL odds, not guaranteed odds for every book of ticket though usually the books will follow the odds. Maryland Lottery is promoting the game this month with their lottery rewards program. For every $25 worth of losing tickets for this game and the other 2 mentioned at the beginning of this review, you get a spin on the app wheel where you can win a coupon, draw points or prize points. You can get up to 4 spins on the app wheel ($100 worth of losing tickets). Please be responsible in your playing if you decide to play. Remember, you're not guaranteed to win a fortune if you decide to play. Good luck to you and thanks for reading my ad free blog.

Disclaimer: I wasn't provided any free tickets or remuneration from Maryland Lottery for writing this review just like my other personal reviews on other games I've reviewed. I spent my own money to play this game. My sources for this game are 1 of the tickets I bought and the Maryland Lottery app which has a function where you can call up any of their scratch off games and see when the game was introduced, game number and how many prizes are left for each prize amount. I do recommend this app as it's handy for seeing how many prizes are left. Plus, you can check your ticket with it to see if it's a winner. I recommend you ALWAYS double check your ticket with this or one of the ticket checkers at any location that sells Maryland Lottery tickets. It's easy to miss something while playing. You don't want to throw away a winning ticket by mistake.

Review of Maryland Lottery's Win $100, $200 or $500 Scratch Off Game

On October 23, 2023, Maryland Lottery launched the win $100, $200 or $500 for the second time. I remember this game because I did have some luck with it the first time it came out, The game features just 3 prizes: $100, $200 and $500. Like its previous version, it costs $20 to play. Also, like it previous version, it has some of the worst odds of winning among scratch off games: 1 in 9.14 per a lottery ticket I bought.

On the ticket, it claims to offer 3 times more $100 prizes. I don't know if that's true or not. At the time of this post, there were 348,041 $100 prizes left as well as 142,070 $200 prizes left and 17,338 $500 prizes left. Like the previous version, it has the same $$ instant win symbol. Also, it offers 30 chances to win though that doesn't mean as much as the 1 in 9.14 odds. The game is very like its cheaper $10 version. 

At the time of this post, Maryland Lottery is offering a second chance drawing where you could win $100,000. The lottery is offering multiple drawings on this prize. Unlike the previous version, Maryland Lottery is promoting this game as a holiday game. The ticket has Christmas tree ornaments and streamers on it but, it doesn't have any other connections with the holiday. In that way, it's like its previous version. It's a decent game but, it can be a real gamble. I've played this latest version and, like its previous version, you can get clobbered on this game if you're unlucky. On my thumbs up scale, I'd give it a 1 out of 2. Good luck to you if you decide to take a chance on this game.

Please see my standard disclaimer for any reviews I write and post about various Maryland Lottery games. This disclaimer is valid for this review too. Like all games I post on this blog, I bought the game ticket with my own money and didn't receive any remuneration from Maryland Lottery nor do I have connection with them.

Update May 26, 2025: This game must be very successful for Maryland Lottery because it's on its 3rd Edition at the time ⏲️ of this update. The overall odds in this edition are 1 in 8.84 (Source: a ticket 🎟 I bought.).

Update April 8, 2026: this version is still for sale. I don't know how many $100, $200 and $500 prizes are left. It still has the same lousy odds of winning BUT, that doesn't stop me from playing it. It is NEAT to hit a $500 winner 🏆.

Review of Maryland Lottery's Fast Play Games

 I don't remember when the Maryland Lottery first came out with their Fast Play games. The games are a cross between the number games on paper tickets and scratch offs. They come on a paper ticket like the number games Example: Cash For Life but they offer the gambler the instant win feature that comes with scratch off tickets without the scratching.

The games start at $1 and go up to $20 with the prize amount increasing as the ticket price goes up. Some of the games offer a set prize while others offer the gambler a progressive jackpot that appears to go up $1 for every losing ticket; The most expensive games that cost $20, have progressive jackpots which start at $250,000. The jackpot steadily increases until someone wins it where upon it resets to $250,000 and starts its way back up again.

There are posted odds on each game but, these odds are irrelevant. The reason I say that is because the gambler is playing against all the other gamblers that are playing their game at the same time. So, if the stated overall odds are 1 in 3, 1 ticket could go to someone in Baltimore, a second ticket could go to someone in Hagerstown and a third ticket could go to someone in Cumberland and it's pure luck who gets the winner. The only time the odds might be relevant is if the gambler is playing when a lot of others aren't. In comparison, with scratch offs, you're playing against the book. It's just a matter of time and luck until a winner shows up. Conversely, the gambler playing the Fast Play games could potentially buy 10 tickets and not get a single winner as they could go to other players in the state who were playing at the same time.

One plus of this feature of the Fast Play games is that it is also possible to get back to back winners. I've had on a number of occasions where I paid for 2 tickets and, I happen to pay for them at the right time so both came up winners. Back to back winners are rare in scratch offs.

Overall, the games are more of gamble then scratch offs because you are playing against all the other players that are playing at the same time. Still, they can offer some jackpots that the scratch offs would be hard to match. The jackpot at the time of this post for the Fast Play Diamond Mine game is over $1,000,000 and unlike the scratch offs where you would get the $1 ($20 game) or $2 million ($30 game) over 20 years, in this case you'd get it ALL barring the taxes you'd have to pay.

Ultimately, it depends on how much of a gamble the gambler wants to take. Also, some of the games offer games the scratch off don't like Blackjack ($2 play) which I particularly enjoy. I wouldn't recommend you buy a lot of these tickets because if lady luck isn't with you, you could get your clock cleaned. However, the games are worth a play for the would be gambler. Out of 2 thumbs, I give them 1 because you are playing against everyone else in the state at that time which makes it more a gamble then the scratch offs. If you want a more likely chance of winning (relatively speaking), play scratch offs. 

Good luck to any gamblers out there and please remember to gamble responsibly.

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.

Review of Royal Caribbean's Scratch Off Games

I fancy myself something of an expert on lottery scratch off games as I've played a number of them in Maryland and a few in Virginia. I knew Royal Caribbean offered scratch off lottery tickets in their ship's casinos. While on my April 2018 cruise on Royal Caribbean's Grandeur of the Seas, I visited the ship's casino and proceeded to play each of their scratch off games.

I wrote a review previously on Royal Caribbean's scratch off games and, this review is a bit of an update. The biggest change I found with Royal Caribbean in this way was they added $10 and $20 games. The $10 game offers a top prize of $50,000 and, the $20 game offers a top prize of $100,000. In comparison to Maryland Lottery's scratch offs, these prizes are low. Maryland Lottery offers a top prize of $100,000 for $10 games and, $1,000,000 (paid over 20 years) for $20 games.

Another downside I found to the Royal Caribbean games is the odds get worse! as they get more expensive. According to one of the tickets I bought, the overall odds of winning something in their $20 game called Glittering Gold are 1 in 5.09. In Maryland, the normal odds for a $20 game are 1 in 3 or slightly less. This confounded me a bit.

Overall odds for the $5 and $10 games are the same at 1 in 4.48 which in my opinion is also poor. These odds are more in line with Maryland Lottery's $1 games which offer the worst overall odds of all their games.

Their $10 game called 20X THE CASH offered the most instant winner chances. This game is very similar to Maryland Lottery's 100X game except the instant win symbols go from 2X to 20X whereas in the Maryland game, they go up to 100X. The instant win symbols are 2X, 5X, 10X and 20X where you win the prize instantly times the instant win symbol example: if you hit a 5X symbol, you win 5 times the prize shown below the symbol so, if it was a $20 prize, you would win $100 in this case.

The $20 game does have a one instant win chance on this game. At the top of the ticket is a round covered chance which you scratch off and if you scratch off a coin with a dollar symbol on it, you instantly win $100. Otherwise, this game is like ALL the other games in that you try to match 1 or more of the 5 numbers at the top of the ticket to win some prize.

Another gripe I have with Royal Caribbean is they don't show the various prize amounts in their games except for the top prize. Presumably, you have a chance of winning at least what the ticket cost you but, it's anyone's guess what prize amounts are in between that and the top prize.

One last note: if you win a prize of $100 or higher on ANY of the games, you will have to provide the following information on the ticket: sign your name, print your name, the prize amount, your cabin number and the date. Also, the cashier will have to sign the ticket.

Overall, I wasn't impressed with Royal Caribbean's scratch off games. Like all scratch off games in general, they're easy to play and probably the easiest games in the ship's casino. Still, the poor overall odds and smaller prizes are a real downer for me. I can't recommend them. I think players in the United States of America at least could find better games in their home states. Best of luck to any gamblers among my readers. Cheers!

Update February 3, 2019: I did another Royal Caribbean cruise last month on their Grandeur of the Seas. While on-board, I played some of their scratch off games again. I found another annoying thing about their games. They don't have a system where you can check the ticket electronically i.e. have a box figure you can scan where it'll tell you if you have a winner or not. This is standard in Maryland and helps prevent the player from mistakenly throwing away a winning ticket. Also, it helps the cashier as they have to check each number on the ticket to see if it matches vice just scanning the ticket. I mentioned this to the cashier and, they recommended I mention it in my end of cruise feedback which I subsequently did. Hopefully, Royal Caribbean will come out with such a system which will help both players and the casino cashiers with the games.

Review of Maryland Lottery's Willy Wonka Golden Ticket Scratch Off Game

One of the newest games to come out of the Maryland Lottery is their Willy Wonka Golden Ticket scratch off game. The game costs $10 and offers a top prize of $100,000 (common among $10 games). The game was launched on April 23, 2018 and has all 8 $100,000 prizes as well as all 12 $10,000 prizes at the time of this post. Four lucky winners have won the third tier prize of $1,000 though 48 of those remain at the time of this post.

The overall odds of this game are 1 in 3.44. The game has 3 instant win symbols: a top hat which causes the winner to instantly win 5 times the prize shown (minimum $50 prize), a lollipop which causes the winner to instantly win 10 times the prize shown (minimum $100 prize) and a ticket which causes the winner to win ALL 25 prizes shown on the ticket (figuring on $10 per prize, that means if you hit this symbol, you've won at least $250!). Barring these instant win symbols, you have to match 1 or more of 5 numbers to win a minimum prize of $10.

One very unique feature of this game is its second chance drawing. There will be 6 drawings on:

May 28, 2018
July 2, 2018
August 6, 2018
September 10, 2018
October 15, 2018
November 19, 2018

The winner of each drawing will be flown to Las Vegas, Nevada with a guest for a Billion Dollar Challenge contest where they will compete against their other winners as well as other winners from other states that participate in this contest. The winner will have a chance to win from $1,000 to $1 Billion dollars.

Besides getting flown out to Las Vegas for the contest, the winner and their guest gets free airport transport, free hotel accommodations for 3 nights and $1,000 spending money.

Overall, I think this is one of the more interesting scratch off games that Maryland Lottery has come up with. I think the second chance drawing will attract a lot of interest too as who wouldn't like to win a BILLION dollars. Personally, I've played this game twice using my own money and had a little bit of luck with it. I do like the Willy Wonka theme. The tickets feature a Willy Wonka character on the ticket that to me looks like Gene Wilder who played the character in the first Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory movie. I very much liked that movie and feel Wilder was excellent in it. This is one game I'd recommend to would be players though do remember to play responsibly please.

Sources: 1 of the scratch off tickets I bought with my own money and the Maryland Lottery website. I haven't received any compensation for writing this review and all opinions expressed in this review are my own and not reflective of the Maryland Lottery nor do I have ANY association with them.

Update November 12, 2018: If you haven't done so already, you should enter any remaining losing tickets in this game so, you can get in on the last second chance drawing their having which happens November 19th. Also, this game is wrapping up. The last time I checked, all but 1 of the $100,000 prizes were gone and all the $10,000 prizes were gone. Now, you'd be playing for $1,000 and, you can do that for a lot less than $10.

Review of Maryland Lottery's Triple 333's Game

On February 26, 2018, the Maryland Lottery came out with a new $2 scratch off game called Triple 333's. The game features 8 top prizes of $10,000. Other prize amounts start from $2 and go up to $5,000. At the time of this post, no one has claimed any of the top $10,000 prizes.

The game gives you 10 chances to win. In order to win, you must reveal either a single "3" which means you have instantly whatever the prize amount is to the right of the number OR get three 3's i.e. "333". If you get a triple 3, you win triple the prize amount shown.

Overall odds of winning in the game are 1 in 4.04 which is normal for the cheaper games.

The game is incredibly easy to play as all you have to do is scratch straight down on the left side that has the numbers and see if you have either one 3 or three 3's.

Losing tickets do qualify for lottery reward points.

Overall, this is a very easy and quick game to play. For those who can't afford the higher priced games, this is a more affordable way to play for some reasonably big money. I think it's an ok game.

One final note: if you need to find the ticket numbers in order to enter ticket for lottery reward points, you'll find them along the right side of the ticket just past the prize amounts. I was wondering where these numbers were and had to search for them.

An Update on My Blogging

To any readers I have, no I haven't stopped blogging. I didn't realize I haven't posted anything since October 2017. I will post some new stuff soon. I just finished a mini-adventure where I stayed at 2 different Holiday Inn Expresses 2 different days (Springfield, Virginia and Prince Frederick, Maryland) made more memorable by the fact that due to some freakish Maryland weather I caught some kind of virus I'm now trying to kick.

Another issue I had was trying to get back into my blogger account. It took me over a very frustrating hour before I finally was able to figure out how to call it back up. To Google's credit, their blogger troubleshooting list did help me eventually solve the problem.

So, stay tuned for some new stuff. I have more interesting adventures coming this year with 3 cruises booked with Royal Caribbean. And thank you for reading my blog. Cheers.

Update February 27, 2018: I managed to kick the virus I caught and have started taking Vitamin Shoppe's Sambucus Black Elderberry extract to stay healthy. I'm not crazy about the taste of the stuff as it tastes like licorice but, if it keeps me healthy, I'll take a dose every day.

On new blog topics, I'll be blogging about some more products I've tried like Pringle's Extra Hot Chili & Lime chips and the new Maryland Lottery $30 game they came out with this week. It looks like it'll be an improvement over the first $30 game they came out with so stay tuned.

Update March 29, 2018: I know I haven't posted a review on Maryland's new Megabucks $30 scratch off game. It is an improvement over their first $30 game called $2,000,000 Fortune. It has 3 different possible instant win chances in the main part of the ticket and four bonus instant win chances at the top of the ticket - $30, $50, $200 and $500. I still plan to write a review on this game.

Another thing to watch for are some posts on my upcoming cruise with Royal Caribbean. I'll be cruising out of Baltimore, Maryland on Royal Caribbean's Grandeur of the Seas. It'll be my 3rd cruise on this ship BUT, the first time I'll in-process through the Baltimore Cruise Ship Terminal. I've read the people are rude there. I'm curious to see if it's true. We'll see. I'll try to post some pictures too. Stay tuned.

Review of Maryland Lottery's Betty Boop Scratch Off Game

I've been meaning to write a review on this game for a while. I've played it a number of times myself. I find the game noteworthy because in my opinion, it's second chance prize is actually better than it's top prize. I'll explain.

Maryland Lottery's $2 Betty Boop scratch off game is one of the few games it offers that has a second chance drawing. In this case, they're having 4 separate drawings where the winner can win a 8 day/7 night stay in Belmont Towers (condominiums that can sleep 8) in Ocean City, Maryland. The winner also gets a $1,000 Visa gift card for spending money.

2 of the drawings have already been done with the next one happening on July 24th. The winner will get to stay at Belmont Towers from August 26th to September 2nd. The final drawing will be on August 21st with the winner staying at Belmont Towers from September 23rd to September 30th (the end of the season at Ocean City). Considering what it can cost to stay at Ocean City, in my opinion, this is a very nice second chance prize.

How would be players get entered in the drawings is by entering their losing tickets with Maryland Lottery Rewards. Every losing ticket gets 1 entry for 1 particular drawing (whichever one you get the ticket entered by). Entries don't carry over as far as I know.

Top prizes for the game are: $10,000 (4 remaining), $1,000 (9 remaining), $500 (93 remaining), $200 (214 remaining) and $100 (670 remaining) at the time of this post.

You get 2 winning numbers and, you get 10 chances to match those numbers. The game does have an instant win feature. If you discover a BB symbol, you automatically win double the prize shown.

Overall odds of winning are (to be filled in later by me as I forgot to write this down from one of my tickets, sorry about that).

I've found this game to be very easy and quick to play. As I've stated, I really like the second chance prize. I visited Ocean City once during the off season and found it nice though I'm really not a beach person and that is largely what Ocean City is about though they do have a very nice boardwalk. If you want a cheap and easy game to play with a really nice second chance prize, this might be the game for you. Good luck and please remember to gamble responsibly. Remember, the odds ultimately are in the Maryland Lottery's favor.

Review of Royal Caribbean's Blue Diamonds Scratch Off Game

Last week, I flew back from Seattle, Washington where I did a 7 night Alaska cruise on Royal Caribbean's Explorer of the Seas. While on the ship, I discovered Royal Caribbean has come out with 3 of its own scratch off lottery games. The ship had one in stock called Blue Diamonds. This is a review on that game.

One of the profit centers for Royal Caribbean is the casinos on their ships. With lottery scratch off games being so numerous and wide spread, it wasn't in some ways surprising that Royal Caribbean decided to get in the act. They're a very easy game to run compared to other games in their ship's casinos. The tickets are sold at the cashier's cage, cost $5 each in the Blue Diamond game (I don't know if the other games cost more), offer a top prize of $25,000 (I don't know about the other 2 games as the ship I was on didn't offer them).

Overall odds of winning in Royal Caribbean's Blue Diamond game are 1 in 4.37 (Source: 1 of the tickets I bought). The ticket doesn't show what the prize range is and, I didn't ask the cashier. From scratching off the prize amounts on my losing tickets I have (5 of them) and comparing them, the prize range is as follows:

$5
$10
$50
$100
$1,000
$25,000

I don't know at this time if Royal Caribbean has released how many prizes there are total or what their range (how many different ones there are) is.

The game does have 2 interesting conditions: 1) you must claim any prize before midnight on the last day of the cruise (probably the night before you get off the ship) and 2) you must be at least 18 years or older UNLESS you're on an Alaska cruise like I was in which case you must be at 21 years of age (probably to comply with Alaska gambling laws) to play. I don't know if they offer the games on ship's that sail in other waters like around Australia or the Mediterranean.

The Blue Diamonds game is pretty dull in my opinion because there aren't any instant win chances in the game. You get 5 winning numbers in the middle of the ticket and, you have to match 1 or more of them to the 15 numbers below the winning numbers to win whatever prize. Still, if you want some quick gambling action and, you're not into pulling the arm or pushing the buttons on the slot machines, they might be for you. They're definitely an easy game to play in the casino.

Overall, I wasn't wowed by Royal Caribbean's Blue Diamonds game. To me, it's ok. I did find it interesting to play as I've played a number of scratch off games in Maryland (more reviews coming on those games, stay tuned). If you happen to be on a Royal Caribbean cruise line ship and, you've got to scratch, you might head over to the ship's casino and try one of their 3 scratch off games including this one. Good luck.

Disclaimer: I don't work for Royal Caribbean, I didn't receive any compensation from them for this review and any information cited in this review came from the tickets I bought with my own money. Please remember to gamble responsibly. I doubt you want to go home broke or worse from your fun cruise.

Review of Maryland Lottery's Ultimate Riches Scratch Off Game

On April 24, 2017, the Maryland Lottery came out with it's latest $1,000,000 prize scratch off game called Ultimate Riches. Like all $1,000,000 prize games, the tickets sell for $20 each. The game features 5 so called games with 25 chances to win a prize though the thing that really matters in my opinion is the overall odds of winning which are 1 in 2.96 (Source: one of the tickets I bought with my own money i.e. I don't get paid any compensation from the Maryland Lottery and I don't have any connection with them) which is average for this kind of scratch off game. Most games of this sort tend to have an overall odds of winning of 1 in 3.

The tickets resemble Maryland Lottery's previous game called Instant Millionaire with a winning number at the top of 5 columns and 5 numbers below each winning number. You try to make the winning number with 1 of the numbers below in 1 or more of the columns/games. There is 1 big difference in the Ultimate Riches tickets vice the previous Instant Millionaire game - there isn't any chance of an instant win. In the Instant Millionaire game, Maryland Lottery offered the player a chance at instantly winning either $100 or $50. In the Ultimate Riches game, there isn't ANY instant win feature which is a surprise to me. It's common to have one in the games I've seen.

Top prizes for the game are $1,000,000; $50,000; and $10,000. Interestingly, the Maryland Lottery continues its trend of offering more top prizes in the $1,000,000 prize games. It used to be standard that there would be 3 such prizes. In this game, the Maryland Lottery offers 7! Also, they offer 13 $50,000 prizes and offered 59 $10,000 prizes (there are 57 left at the time of this post). Keep in mind, that with more top prizes, there will be more tickets put out overall for the game (based on the increased number of prizes I've seen and the overall odds of winning anything). One nice thing for those who like this game is that it also means the game will be out longer because of the increased number of tickets.

Overall, the only thing I was impressed with concerning this game was the increase in $1,000,000 prizes. Otherwise, this is a pretty boring game though if you want a game where you'll find out quickly if you won or not, this might be the game for you. This game doesn't take a lot of time to play unlike other games like Maryland Lottery's $2,000,0000 Fortune game where you have to check 40 numbers to see if you matched. Due to the high number of tickets, this game should be very easy to find throughout Maryland. Good luck to all players out there!

Review of Maryland Lottery's Uno Scratch Off Game

Yesterday, while playing some Maryland Lottery scratch off games at a Citgo gas station in Laurel, Maryland, I saw they had a $3 game called Uno after the famous card game. I decided to play it.

The game features 21 hidden Uno cards in 3 rows of 7 with 4 bonus cards to the right for a total of 25 at the top of the ticket. Below the cards are 6 horizontal rows of cards with hidden prize amounts to the right. The rows come in 2 card sets of 5 cards, 6 cards and 7 cards. You scratch off hidden cards at the top and then see if you have a match in any of the horizontal rows. If you do, you scratch that card. When you've scratched all the cards in a horizontal row, you win the prize to the right. As far as I can tell, the prize amounts to the right are random i.e. you won't win a bigger prize for successfully scratching all the cards in a 7 card row vice a 5 card row (I scratched all the prize amounts on 1 ticket I bought to see if there was a difference).

Prizes run from $3 to the top prize of $30,000. There are 4 - $30,000 prizes, 25 - $1,000 prizes, 459 - $500 prizes and 5,029 remaining $100 prizes as of the time of this post (Source: the game's webpage at the Maryland Lottery website) with lesser amounts going down to $3. As the game had just come out yesterday, this is why all the top prizes are still available barring a few $100 prizes.

Overall odds in this game are 1 in 3.83 which isn't very good in my opinion though the cheaper scratch off games tend to have worse odds compared to the $20 games which usually run around 1 in 3. I guess they have to make up the money in the game by not having as many winners.

The game does qualify for Lottery Reward points.

Overall, this game will appeal to people who like the card game Uno or who like to scratch as there is a lot of scratching in this game. The game can be suspenseful in that on repeated tickets I played I had multiple lines where I got down to 1 missing card. So, I kept wondering each time I scratched if the needed missing card was going to show up. On my fourth go at this game, it did (won $3). I found it a nice game though I confess I like Maryland Lottery's Treasure Island $3 game better (see my earlier review on this game). Like the Treasure Island game, I'd recommend you double check your ticket to make sure it's a winner or loser as you might accidentally miss one of the cards in the rows in the lower part of the ticket that would make you a winner. Good luck to you all.

As a reminder, please do remember to play responsibly. The odds aren't in your favor of hitting it big at these scratch off games though they're better than the odds in either Megamillions or Powerball.

Review of Maryland Lottery's Treasure Island Scratch Off Game

My apologies to my readers on this review. I've been meaning to write it for a while and, I didn't get around to it till today. Today, I guess I have a surprise urge to write stuff. Anyway, on to the review.

If you like to scratch a LOT on the scratch off games (I have a co-worker who does), you'll love this game because there is a LOT of scratching involved though not as bad as Maryland Lottery's Lucky Seven Game book they had a while back.

The Treasure Island game was launched by the Maryland Lottery on December 27, 2016 (Source: the Maryland Lottery webpage; http://www.mdlottery.com/games/scratchoffs/ then look for the Treasure Island game). According to the webpage, as of March 18, 2017, the game has five out of eight $30,000 prizes left, fifteen out of twenty-two $1,000 prizes left and seventy-two out of one hundred and four $500 prizes left. Those are the big prize amounts in this game. There are smaller amounts all the way down to $3 which is what the game costs to play.

How the game works: The game has 3 ships at the bottom of the ticket. You start scratching where each ship begins and, you go the direction each arrow points (either up, right or left). Along the way, you'll uncover symbols or prize amounts with arrows directing you which way to go. If you hit a skull & crossed bones with the words Game Over, the game is over for THAT ship. Remember, you have THREE ships paths to follow i.e. you have THREE chances to win a prize.

There are 3 ways you can win in this game:

1) make it all the way to one of the four prize areas - you win the prize you uncover.

2) uncover 3 identical symbols (either a gold bar or key) in all three ship paths, you win $25 for the key, $50 for the gold bar.

3) uncover 3 identical prize amounts in all three ship paths, you win that amount.

At times, even though these directions which I took from the game webpage should be clear enough, I've found I've had to check my ticket with a scanner at the place I bought the ticket or with the Maryland lottery app which will tell you if you have a winning ticket or not (though it won't tell you how much annoyingly). I had one case where I had three $3 winners in a row and didn't know it!

Overall odds of winning in this game are 1 in 3.85. You can do better or worse than that. I've had both happen.

One neat thing the Maryland Lottery did to promote the game is they created a page where you can get your pirate name! I tried this and ended up with the pirate name - Jolly Davy. I have no idea where it came up with this name as my real name is Ron. Guys AND Gals can get their pirate name at:

http://www.mdlottery.com/promotions/treasure-island/

Overall, I've found this a fun game to play vice playing for the $30,000 prize (though I wouldn't turn it down if I hit it to my surprise). I feel this is a cheap game (I usually play the $20 games) to play. It is eligible for Lottery Reward points so save your losing tickets so, you can claim the points on the reward webpage or by using the reward app.

Lastly, please be responsible while playing. The odds aren't in your favor of hitting it big so do play responsibly (i.e. don't play with money you can't afford to lose like your rent or electric bill money). Best of luck to you all!

Update May 7, 2017: I discovered you can use the Maryland Lottery Rewards application (app) to check tickets to see if you won. A big plus of this app vice their normal lottery app is not only will it tell you if you have a winner, it'll tell you how much! This is becoming my go to app when I'm playing Maryland Lottery scratch off games. Also, it may be obvious what you've won in other games unlike this game BUT, it doesn't hurt to have confirmation from the Maryland Lottery on your win.

Review of Maryland Lottery's $2,000,000 Scratch Off Game

My apologies to any followers I might have. I didn't realize I didn't post anything for February 2017. I have lots of ideas for future posts and have even done some research for a few of them. I just haven't gotten around to making myself sit down and knock out some of them. Fortunately, here's one post I will get done in a timely fashion.

While visiting my friend Larry (retired city mail carrier) at his liquor store in Woodbine, Maryland, I decided to play Maryland Lottery's first ever (as far as I know) $2,000,000 scratch off game. According to the game webpage, the game was launched February 27, 2017. Tickets cost $30 vice $20 for the $1,000,000 prize games (seems like a better deal as you spend an extra $10 and could win twice as much money). It offers five $2,000,000 prizes, sixteen $50,000 prizes, sixteen $5,000 and numerous prizes of $500 to $30 (over 500,000 $30 prizes alone). At the time of this post, none of the big prizes had been claimed yet.

In regards to the game, one of the tickets I bought with MY own money (I don't get anything from Maryland Lottery for doing this and all opinions expressed here are my own and not in any way connected with the Maryland Lottery), states the games OVERALL odds of winning are 1 in 2.82. You can do better and, you can do worse like I did the first time I played this game (I hit a $30 on my 4th try). The ticket states on the front of it that Maryland Lottery is offering over $90,000,000 in total cash prizes. Each ticket offers 40 chances to win (again according to the ticket I bought). There are 6 numbers at the top of the ticket that you try to match and 8 rows of 5 numbers below your winning numbers. Make sure you scratch all 8 rows (I goofed on this and didn't for my first 4 plays on this game). There is an instant win symbol in the game which is a gold bar. You find a gold bar symbol and, you win instantly whatever prize is below it.

Concerning the $2,000,000 prize, the ticket I bought states that the $2,000,000 is paid over 20 years like Maryland Lottery does with its $1,000,000 games. There is a cash option which will be less than the $2,000,000 you would get through a 20 year annuity. According to my ticket, you have 60 days to decide which option you wish to take (20 year annuity or all the cash up front minus taxes).

For your information, the game does qualify for Lottery reward points with the player getting a minimum of 30 points for a ticket.

You must be 18 years old or older in order to play the game (lottery rules).

Overall, I thought this was a nice game with the only thing special about it being the $2,000,000 prize. As far as I know, this is the first scratch off game that the Maryland Lottery has offered with such a large prize. I know the Michigan Lottery has offered such large prizes in scratch offs as I remember seeing a $2,000,000 game and a $4,000,000 game there while visiting my Dad 2 years ago. Good luck to any players out there.

Maryland Lottery 100X The Cash Scratch Off Review

The Maryland Lottery has come out with a new scratch off game called 100X The Cash. The game was launched November 28, 2016. From what I can tell, the game has been offered in other states and, I wonder if that's where they got the idea from. It has to be challenging trying to come up with new games all the time to keep player's interest.

The game offers a $1,000,000 prize (paid over 20 years) and costs $20 (standard for $1,000,000 prize games). The game's overall odds of winning are 1 in 2.94 (Reference: the ticket I bought with my own money) which is normal for $1,000,000 prize games. Barring the instant win multipliers which I'll explain in this review further down, you try to match 1 or more of the 5 winning numbers at the top of the ticket (standard). Losing tickets do qualify for Maryland Lottery reward points (all the new games do as far as I know).

The game is noteworthy in 2 respects. First, it offers SIX $1,000,000 prizes vice the normal 3 though keep in mind there are going to be a lot more tickets for this game to make up for the increase in prizes. The game webpage (look for game 301 under $20 game scratch offs on the Maryland Lottery website: www.mdlottery.com) shows there are over 400,000 $20 prizes which proves this point.

The other noteworthy thing about this game is all the instant winners it offers. The game offers FIVE instant multiplier winners. The norm is 1 though sometimes you'll have 2. Also, ALL the instant winners are multipliers. What that means is that it multiplies the win amount example: you hit a 5X instant win multiplier and you have $20 underneath it, this means you've actually won $100 (5 times $20)! The instant win multiplier gets more impressive because this highest instant win multiplier is it's name sake i.e. 100X or 100 TIMES whatever the prize is. Looking at the prizes the game offers (ranges from $20 to $1,000,000), the minimum prize you'll win with the 100X symbol is $5,000 ($50 times 100) and, you could win $1,000,000 with this symbol ($10,000 times 100). The instant win multipliers are as follows:

5X (5 times the prize)
10X (10 times the prize)
20X (20 times the prize)
50X (50 times the prize)
100X (100 times the prize)

I bought 1 ticket with my own money so, I could write this review. I found the game nice (ok, whatever, I may becoming a bit jaded as I've played so many). I suspect the odds of hitting the $1,000,000 prize are in line with Maryland Lottery's other $1,000,000 games though I can't prove this as I haven't tried to compare the numbers. This game will run longer than their other games due to the increase in the top prizes (makes sense). For now, the game will be widely available due to the number of tickets out. I think those that like scratch off games (I do) will like this game as much as others. The numerous instant win multipliers does give little more excitement if you hit one because the prizes will be so much bigger (minimum $100 based on a $20 prize times 5). Please do remember to play responsibly and that the overall odds I stated (Reference: came from the ticket I bought) are the OVERALL odds. You can do better and you can do worse. Good luck!

Disclaimer: All opinions stated in this review are my own and are not in any way associated with the Maryland Lottery which I have no association with. The ticket I used as a reference for this review was bought with my OWN money. I haven't received any compensation from the Maryland Lottery for writing this review. I've tried to be factual in this review. If you discover an error in it, please leave a comment for me to review so, I can post a correction. My other source is the Maryland Lottery website: www.mdlottery.com.

Review of Maryland Lottery's $1,000,000 Platinum Play Scratch Off

The latest $1,000,000 prize scratch off lottery game that the Maryland Lottery has come out with is the $1,000,000 Platinum Play game. The game has been out since August 22, 2016. Surprisingly, none of the $1,000,000 or $50,000 prizes have been claimed as of the time of this post.

The game features prizes of $1,000,000, $50,000, $10,000, $5,000, $1,000 and lesser amounts down to $20. One difference in this game vice previous $1,000,000 game scratch offs is that the Maryland Lottery is offering four $1,000,000 vice the normal three such prizes. Also, there are nine $50,000 prizes though I don't know what the norm is for that. I suspect the Maryland Lottery will issue more tickets in this game to make up for the increased number of $1,000,000 prizes. I saw on the game's webpage that there will still over 250,000 $20 winners alone still out there.

Like all $1,000,000 scratch off games, the tickets cost $20. Overall odds of winning according the 2 tickets I bought with my own money are 1 in 2.94. Please remember those are the OVERALL odds i.e. you can do better and you can do worse.

Another noteworthy thing about the game is the Maryland Lottery doesn't mention on the FRONT of the ticket that the game has an instant win feature which is common enough with their scratch offs. If a star symbol pops up on the ticket, you win that prize automatically. Otherwise, you try to match 1 to 5 of the 5 numbers you get at the top of the ticket. The game states you have 30 chances to win though the number that really matters is the overall odds ration i.e. 1 in 2.94 which is normal for the $1,000,000 prize games.

Like all the recent games, losing tickets do qualify for Lottery Rewards points. There isn't any second chance drawing in this game for those who like that feature.

Overall, I found the $1,000,000 Platinum Play a decent enough game though I didn't find anything that makes it particularly noteworthy barring the fact the Maryland Lottery is offering four $1,000,000 prizes this time. I do wonder if this will be the new norm for all their $1,000,000 prize games. Time will tell. Best of luck to all players out there and please do remember to play responsibly.

One final comment: all opinions in this review are my own and aren't in any way reflective of the Maryland Lottery i.e. they didn't have anything to do with this game review. I bought the 2 tickets I played with my money i.e. I didn't receive any kind of compensation from the Maryland Lottery and, I never will. Any statistics that I stated for this game came either from the tickets I bought or from the game webpage on the Maryland Lottery website.

Maryland Lottery's Million Dollar Spectacular Game Review

While visiting a friend's liquor store, I discovered Maryland Lottery's newest $1,000,000 prize scratch off game called Million Dollar Spectacular. I remembered reading one big winner's strategy where he'd play the new games as he felt there would be a greater chance to hit a big prize initially. It worked for him but, it didn't work for me. I ended up with 4 losers in a row before I hit back to back small winners.

The game is your standard $1,000,000 prize scratch off game. There are three $1,000,000 (see note) prizes (all still available at the time of this post), six $50,000 prizes (all still available at the time of this post), twenty-four $10,000 prizes (all still available at the time of this post), thirty-seven $5,000 prizes (35 remaining at the time of this post) and 733 $1,000 prizes (701 remaining at the time of this post) as well as various smaller prizes starting with $20. You match 1 or more of the 5 numbers at the top of the ticket and you win that prize. The game does have 1 difference from other big prize games in that there is a box at the upper left of the ticket. The box contains 6 prize amounts. If you match 3 of the prize amounts, you win that prize instantly. I liked this feature though I had crummy luck with it. The game started December 28, 2015 so, it hasn't been out that long. Like all new games, losing tickets are eligible for lottery reward points. Overall (meaning overall for the ENTIRE game) odds are 1 in 2.97 of winning. You can do better or you can do worse like I did initially.

Overall, I thought it was a nice game though not a great one. I plan to try it again some time and see if I can a bit better luck with it. To me, it's a pretty standard $1,000,000 prize scratch off game. If you like playing the newest game out in Maryland, you might want to give it a go. Good luck!

Note: the $1,000,000 is paid out over 20 years in an annuity. The winner has 60 days after turning in the winning ticket to inform Maryland Lottery if they want a cash option i.e. all the money immediately. If they choose that option, the payout will be LESS than $1,000,000. If they don't inform them in time, they will automatically receive the annuity (source: one of the game tickets I bought).

Lastly, my source for the odds in the game was one of the tickets I bought. My source for how many prizes remained at the time of this post was the Maryland Lottery webpage for this game. That web page can be found under the $1,000,000 prize scratch off games.

Gold Hard Cash Scratch Off Game Review

On September 21, 2015, the Maryland Lottery introduced it's Gold Hard Cash scratch off game. The game offers 6 top prizes of $100,000 none of which have been claimed at the time of this post (Source: Maryland Lottery website). The tickets sell for $10 and the OVERALL (you could do better and you could do worse) odds are 1 in 3.42 (Source: the ticket I bought with my OWN money). Prizes are: $10, $15, $20, $50, $100, $500, $1,000, $10,000 and the top prize - $100,000.

The ticket has 3 different games.

In the upper right hand corner, you have instant win window where you win any prize that shows up in the window.

In the main part of the ticket, you get 5 numbers that you try to match. You win whatever prize under the number you main. There is also an instant win symbol - a bag of money with a dollar sign on it where you win whatever prize is below it.

The 3rd game on the ticket is where you scratch the entire area in the bottom of the ticket and see if any gold bar symbols come up.

Get 1 gold bar, you win $10.
Get 2 gold bars, you win $50
Get 3 gold bars, you win $100

Other top prizes are $10,000 and $1,000. The game started with 15 $10,000 prizes but at the time of this post, 5 had been claimed so, there are 10 left. The started with 28 $1,000 prizes but at the time of this post, 6 of these had been claimed so, there are 22 of these left (Source: Maryland Lottery website).

Overall, it's a decent scratch off game. It's more expensive than Maryland Lottery's $1, $3 or $5 but cheaper then their $20 games. There are lots of tickets out there so, it should be easy to find.

Lastly, please remember to gamble responsibly. The odds aren't in your favor. Good luck!