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Weak valueActivePoker Nights · $5 · California Lottery
Poker Nights: Weak value. A $5 ticket pays back $3.39 on average.
▼ -2.2 pts vs launch#7 of 11 · $5 CA games
▼ -2.2 pts vs launch#7 of 11 · $5 CA games
Poker Nights is a $5 scratch-off ticket from the California state lottery. Its current expected value is 67.8%, down 2.2 percentage points from the launch value of 70.0%. 7 of the original 40 $75,000 top prizes are still unclaimed. Approximately 79% of the 48.0M printed tickets have been sold.
67.8%
expected return
1 in 3.62
odds of any win
7 of 40
$75K top prizes left
79%
claimed · 38M of 48M printed
Odds, in plain terms
If you bought 100 tickets today
Based on the 2,780,020 winning tickets still unclaimed.
19 win more than $5
$6 – $100, an actual profit
9 win their money back
a $5 prize, so you break even
72 win nothing
the house edge, made visible
Prizes of $500 or more hit about 1 in 2,775 tickets, so they won't show up in a batch of 100.
Value map
Where the $3.39 comes from
The average payback per ticket, split by prize size. Small wins do most of the work.
Small wins $5 – $500
$3.24 · 64.8% of price
Mid prizes $1K – $75K
$0.15 · 3.0% of price
Most of the value pays out as
$5 – $500 wins
2,779,415 winning tickets remain in this range: 96% of total value, and the wins you'll actually see.
Claim progress
79% of the print run claimed
Counting every ticket since launch, Sep 2025.
48M
tickets printed
38M
tickets claimed · 79%
10M
still out there
Prizes claimed over time
Claim chart needs more snapshot history
Sales are outpacing the jackpots: worse for buyers.
Jackpots left
18%
Tickets left
21%
18% of top prizes remain with 21% 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 $5 CA peers
#7 of 11
By expected return. Higher is better for the player.
Figures from California Lottery published claim data.
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