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Strong valueActive40 Years of Play! · $40 · California Lottery
40 Years of Play!: Strong value. A $40 ticket pays back $33.31 on average.
▲ +3.1 pts vs launch#1 of 2 · $40 CA games
▲ +3.1 pts vs launch#1 of 2 · $40 CA games
40 Years of Play! is a $40 scratch-off ticket from the California state lottery. Its current expected value is 83.3%, up 3.1 percentage points from the launch value of 80.2%. 1 of the original 7 $15,000,000 top prizes are still unclaimed. Approximately 90% of the 21.3M printed tickets have been sold.
83.3%
expected return
1 in 2.85
odds of any win
1 of 7
$15M jackpots left
90%
claimed · 19.1M of 21.3M printed
Odds, in plain terms
If you bought 100 tickets today
Based on the 760,195 winning tickets still unclaimed.
14 win more than $40
$80 – $400, an actual profit
20 win their money back
a $40 prize, so you break even
66 win nothing
the house edge, made visible
Prizes of $500 or more hit about 1 in 3,000 tickets, so they won't show up in a batch of 100.
Value map
Where the $33.31 comes from
The average payback per ticket, split by prize size. Small wins do most of the work.
Small wins $40 – $400
$25.08 · 62.7% of price
Mid prizes $1K – $100K
$1.42 · 3.6% of price
Jackpots $15M+
$6.80 · 17.0% of price
Realistic return, jackpots set aside
66.3%
Just 1 ticket out of 2.2M carry the $15M+ prizes. This is your expected return if none of them is yours.
Most of the value pays out as
$40 – $400 wins
759,460 winning tickets remain in this range: 75% of total value, and the wins you'll actually see.
Claim progress
90% claimed, and the jackpots are still out there
Counting every ticket since launch, Jan 2025.
21.3M
tickets printed
19.1M
tickets claimed · 90%
2.2M
still out there
Prizes claimed over time
Claim chart needs more snapshot history
Jackpots are outlasting sales: good for buyers.
Jackpots left
14%
Tickets left
10%
14% of top prizes remain with only 10% of tickets left to claim them.
Where to buy
California Lottery
At retailers statewide, or online through Jackpocket. Affiliate link: Scratchstats may earn a commission.
Rank vs $40 CA peers
#1 of 2
By expected return. Higher is better for the player.
1
40 Years of Play!
83.3%
2
Royal Jackpot
81.6%
Figures from California Lottery published claim data.
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Scratchstats