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Poor valueActiveJunior BIG OL' BUCKS® · $2 · North Carolina Lottery
Junior BIG OL' BUCKS®: Poor value. A $2 ticket pays back $1.00 on average.
▼ -16.5 pts vs launch#9 of 9 · $2 NC games
▼ -16.5 pts vs launch#9 of 9 · $2 NC games
Junior BIG OL' BUCKS® is a $2 scratch-off ticket from the North Carolina state lottery. Its current expected value is 50.0%, down 16.5 percentage points from the launch value of 66.5%. 1 of the original 9 $50,000 top prizes are still unclaimed. Approximately 90% of the 13.3M printed tickets have been sold.
50.0%
expected return
1 in 4.75
odds of any win
1 of 9
$50K top prizes left
90%
claimed · 12M of 13.3M printed
Odds, in plain terms
If you bought 100 tickets today
Based on the 279,963 winning tickets still unclaimed.
11 win more than $2
$3 – $100, an actual profit
11 win their money back
a $2 prize, so you break even
78 win nothing
the house edge, made visible
Prizes of $500 or more hit about 1 in 102,329 tickets, so they won't show up in a batch of 100.
Value map
Where the $1.00 comes from
The average payback per ticket, split by prize size. Small wins do most of the work.
Small wins $2 – $500
$0.96 · 48.1% of price
Mid prizes $50K
$0.04 · 1.9% of price
Most of the value pays out as
$2 – $500 wins
279,962 winning tickets remain in this range: 96% 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, Sep 2026.
13.3M
tickets printed
12M
tickets claimed · 90%
1.3M
still out there
Prizes claimed over time
Claim chart needs more snapshot history
Jackpots are outlasting sales: good for buyers.
Jackpots left
11%
Tickets left
10%
11% of top prizes remain with only 10% of tickets left to claim them.
Where to buy
North Carolina Lottery
At retailers statewide, or online through Jackpocket. Affiliate link: Scratchstats may earn a commission.
Rank vs $2 NC peers
#9 of 9
By expected return. Higher is better for the player.
Figures from North Carolina Lottery published claim data.
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