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Average valueActiveWIN FOR LIFE · $2 · New York Lottery
WIN FOR LIFE: Average value. A $2 ticket pays back $1.37 on average.
▼ -2.5 pts vs launch#1 of 13 · $2 NY games
▼ -2.5 pts vs launch#1 of 13 · $2 NY games
WIN FOR LIFE is a $2 scratch-off ticket from the New York state lottery. Its current expected value is 68.5%, down 2.5 percentage points from the launch value of 71.0%. 5 of the original 10 $1,000/WEEK/LIFE top prizes are still unclaimed. Approximately 53% of the 48.1M printed tickets have been sold.
68.5%
expected return
1 in 3.97
odds of any win
5 of 10
$1.0M jackpots left
53%
claimed · 25.3M of 48.1M printed
Odds, in plain terms
If you bought 100 tickets today
Based on the 5,736,030 winning tickets still unclaimed.
8 win more than $2
$4 – $200, an actual profit
18 win their money back
a $2 prize, so you break even
74 win nothing
the house edge, made visible
Prizes of $500 or more hit about 1 in 414,102 tickets, so they won't show up in a batch of 100.
Value map
Where the $1.37 comes from
The average payback per ticket, split by prize size. Small wins do most of the work.
Small wins $2 – $200
$1.14 · 56.8% of price
Mid prizes $3K
$0.01 · 0.3% of price
Jackpots $1.0M+
$0.23 · 11.4% of price
Realistic return, jackpots set aside
57.1%
Just 5 tickets out of 22.8M carry the $1.0M+ prizes. This is your expected return if none of them is yours.
Most of the value pays out as
$2 – $200 wins
5,735,975 winning tickets remain in this range: 83% of total value, and the wins you'll actually see.
Claim progress
53% claimed, and the jackpots are still out there
Counting every ticket since launch, Aug 2024.
48.1M
tickets printed
25.3M
tickets claimed · 53%
22.8M
still out there
Prizes claimed over time
Claim chart needs more snapshot history
Jackpots are outlasting sales: good for buyers.
Jackpots left
50%
Tickets left
47%
50% of top prizes remain with only 47% of tickets left to claim them.
Where to buy
New York Lottery
At retailers statewide, or online through Jackpocket. Affiliate link: Scratchstats may earn a commission.
Rank vs $2 NY peers
#1 of 13
By expected return. Higher is better for the player.
Figures from New York Lottery published claim data.
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