Not sure what some lottery lingo means? We break down lottery jargon so you can play (and sound) like a pro.
General Terms
| TERM | DEFINITION |
|---|---|
| Overall Odds | The odds of winning any prize, including break-even prizes and free tickets. You’ll usually find these on the back of a scratch-off ticket. |
| Prize Payout / Return to Player (RTP) | The percentage of ticket sales returned as prizes. For example, a 70% payout means $0.70 is expected to be paid back as prizes for every dollar in ticket sales. |
| Current Prize Payout | A daily-updated Prize Payout using remaining prizes and estimated tickets remaining. |
| Estimated Tickets Remaining | An estimate of the number of tickets remaining unsold in a game. |
Odds Related
| TERM | DEFINITION |
|---|---|
| Starting Odds | The original odds of winning a specific prize when a game first launches. |
| Current Odds | The daily updated odds of winning a prize, calculated using remaining prizes and estimated remaining tickets. |
| Odds Change | The percentage change between the original (starting) odds and the daily current odds. |
| Odds Trend | A visual representation of how the current odds compare to the starting odds: Red: -25% or more Pink: -5% to -25% Yellow: Within ±5% Light Green: +5% to +25% Dark Green: +25% or more |
| Adjusted Odds | The odds of winning a prize above a break-even amount or a free ticket. In other words, your chance of winning more than the cost of the ticket. |
| Claimers™ | Prizes of $600 or more. In most states, prizes of this size require a trip to a lottery claim center to collect, hence Claimers. |
Alerts
| TERM | DEFINITION |
|---|---|
| OverDue Hit Alerts | Notifications for top-tier prizes that haven’t been claimed, even though estimated ticket sales have surpassed the prize’s stated odds (e.g., an unclaimed prize with 1 in 1.0 million odds but 1.3 million estimated tickets sold would be considered “OverDue”). |
| OverLooked Hit Alerts | Notifications for unclaimed top-tier prizes where the game has fewer than 10% estimated tickets remaining. |
| OverDue Edge | The percentage by which estimated ticket sales exceed a prize’s stated odds. If a prize hit exactly on its stated odds, the percentage would be 100%. A percentage greater than 100% would be considered OverDue. |
Note: Prizes won, but not yet claimed, may impact some calculations and/or estimates.
