Scratch Cards - A True British Favourite
Where it’s part of your daily shopping routine, you’re getting rid of some change or looking to get over the line to meet the £5 minimum card payment requirement - almost every adult in the UK has bought a scratch card at some point in their life. For some, they might be small gifts to place around the dinner table at Christmas, while for others they are a part of everyday life. While sports betting tends to be mostly the reserve of the pub-going male, bingo for the retired granny and casinos for the gaming enthusiasts, scratch cards appeal to us all - even those not interested in any other forms of gambling. For some of you, scratch cards might be taken more seriously, and with scratch card games online now available, there are now more possibilities than ever to play.
The Most Popular Scratch Cards in the UK
The possibilities now offered by the introduction with the introduction of online scratch card games and the opportunity to
buy Euromillions tickets
and other foreign cards has broadened the potential horizons for us all when it comes to scratch cards. Instead of buying a scratch card to get over the £5 card minimum at your local shop, you can now buy one to qualify for free delivery when shopping online. There are even dedicated sites with
scratch cards no deposit bonus
offers available, bringing them up to speed with the modern era of online sports betting, poker and casino gambling. Despite this, however, no other scratch cards in the UK have yet managed to surpass the popularity of the humble one or two quid scratchy from the National Lottery.
Our top casino picks
Why 1 Pound Scratch Cards Remain King
Scheduled TV has been largely overtaken by online streaming services, the High Streets have lost out to online shopping and independent bookies are closing up and down the country as more and more people opt for the convenience of our online betting accounts. One thing that has stood the test of time in the internet era is the humble one and two quid scratch card - and that doesn’t look like changing anytime soon, as National Lottery scratch cards are still only available in stores. But why is that?
Physical vs Online Scratch Cards
At an industry level, the National Lottery only sells scratch cards online to keep their fair auditing process in place, that’s in keeping with the World Lottery Association. It can also be put down to the fact that they have had a winning formula for years - if it ain't broke, don’t fix it, right? Some could therefore have grounds to accuse the National Lottery of refusing or failing to keep up with the times when it comes to scratch cards. After all, we can check our lottery numbers online, so why can’t we check if our scratch card is a winner? This would be easy enough to implement via some sort of code - as many other scratch card providers do - yet the UK National Lottery has opted to make this available. You might think it’s old-fashioned stubbornness on their part, but they are, in fact, reading the market.
Put Your Hand in Your Wallet - The Fun of the Scratch
Part of the reason that there has been no move to online scratch cards from the National Lottery is that there’s no demand for it. While we all wanted the convenience of online betting sites and casinos, scratch cards are something we buy impulsively when at the shop counter in the majority of cases. Online versions of scratch cards also mean missing out on what is arguably the most fun part for most - the scratch itself. It’s there a better small-time thrill than getting a 1p or 2p coin (or a quid if you have an SW postcode) and scratching away in the anticipation of the right symbols popping up.
Even the reveal of a 2 pound win on a 1 pound scratch card can fill a person with delight. You just can’t get that with an online scratchie, therefore we’re not likely to change - the humble scratchie is as much a part of British life as a cuppa tea, a pint of Ale and
Match of the Day. That’s not today that online scratch card games don’t appeal to some people, so we will explain more about them later on. However, while UK National Lottery scratch cards can’t be bought online, there are plenty of ways to buy other scratch cards online, which we’ve taken a look at in detail below.
Buying 1 and 2 Pound Scratch Cards Online
National lottery scratch cards might only be available in stores (even in 2024) however that doesn’t mean that you can’t buy the
best scratch cards online
today. There are legit and safe websites out there right now that are accessible to UK players and which can be used to purchase scratch cards online. You can buy scratch cards from both smaller organisations and from European lotteries that allow their scratch cards to be bought online - with some even having potential jackpot prizes worth millions of Euros. One of the best
scratch cards win real money
websites out there today is Lottoland UK, a global site with a UK specific area that’s regulated by the UKGC. Here you can bulk order scratch cards from throughout Europe and the rest of the world that are 100% legal for you to play and claim the prizes.
1 Pound Scratch Cards vs 2 Pound Scratch Cards
Do I have a better chance of winning a 2 pound scratch card?
You might have heard the reasonable logic that a 2 pound scratch card offers you better odds of winning than 1 pound scratch cards - the more expensive the card the higher chance of winning. Seems like simple enough logic, but is it actually true? We’ve investigated this thoroughly, with the important details to follow below.
2 Pound Scratch Cards - Spend Double the Money, Double your Chances
When you place a bet with the bookie and stake £2 instead of £1, your potential winnings are instantly doubled. Therefore you can see why some people would jump to the same conclusion when it comes to the difference between 1 and 2 quid scratch cards - however it doesn’t quite work the same. While more expensive scratch cards give you a better chance of winning technically, it’s not as clear cut as double your spend equals doubling your chances. Usually, two pound cards have more games on the card as well as a bonus game so the odds and percentages take a bit more working out here.
Bigger Scratch Cards = More Prizes Available
Rather than simply being a straightforward case of more expensive cards increasing your odds, having more games on the card means that there are more prizes up for grabs. However, this isn’t as straightforward as doubling the odds - which logic explains. Proportionality with every type of card, the among of each prize increases, but there are always more low money prizes than high money prizes.
When making scratch cards, the amount of winning prizes are divided into three categories; up to £20, £21 - £250 and £250+. Naturally, with all scratch cards, the percentage of smaller prizes is higher than the percentage of larger prizes - that’s just the simple economic system required to keep lotteries and scratch cards running. If you’ve ever sat around a family dinner table at Christmas, where everyone has a 1 or 2 pound scratch card sat at their place, you’ll likely have noticed that inevitably at least one person wins 10 or 20 quid, which statistically is always going to be likely at a large family gathering.
We’ve explained more about this below by breaking down your chances with the most popular UK Scratch cards types.
Your Chances of Winning The Most Popular UK Scratch Cards
So realistically speaking, what are the chances of you winning on a UK scratch card? If it’s just winning in any way, shape or form, then your chances are actually quite high. However, if we’re talking about winning larger prizes - three figures or more, then the chances of winning naturally get much slimmer. To put this into numbers, we’ve taken the three most popular types of UK scratch card and shown your chances of winning prizes with them below:
All Cash
National Lottery All Cash scratch cards are the most common type of one and two quid cards in the UK today. They also have the best overall spread of the three prize fund categories. Prizes of up to £20 in value make up 67.9% of the overall prize fund, while prizes of £21-250 make up 28.2% and prizes of £251 and higher make up the remaining 3.9%.
All Cash Gold
You might think that All Cash Gold cards should actually offer you a better chance of winning. In actual fact, although the maximum cash prizes are higher, the chances of you a winning prize are actually lower than with regular All Cash scratch cards. Prizes of £20 and under make up 72.8% of the total prize fund here, with £21-250 having exactly 26% of the share and the large prizes having just 1.2%. Therefore All Cash Gold Cards actually give you the lowest chance of winning a big prize out of all the national lottery scratch cards.
Winning Streak
Winning Streak scratch cards give you the best chance of winning a big prize overall, but only just, with prizes over £251 getting 4% of the total share. However, prizes of £20 and under make up a massive 82.3%, meaning the middle ground has been sacrificed here, with just 13.7% of prizes ranging between £21 - £250.
So which Scratch Card is Best?
If you’re talking about your straight chances of winning, regardless of the size of the prize, then there is absolutely no difference between the three types of scratch card listed above. However, if you want the best spread, then All Cash cards provide you with the best overall spread, meaning more prizes of £21+ are up for grabs. All Cash Gold cards give you the lowest chance of winning a big prize, with a percentage of the top and middles prizes both being shaved off and given to the lower prize funds. With a winning stream, more than 8 out of 10 wins are going to be under £20, however, it does marginally give you the best chance of revealing a big prize - by 0.1%.
Lesson Learned - Ignore the Branding
If you take one lesson away from the stats we’ve provided you with above, it’s that you shouldn’t let yourself get sucked in by strong branding and clever marketing. “All Cash Gold'' as a name sounds like an improvement on “All Cash”, which naturally catches our attention, as tdo the gold colours of the branding. However, upon doing a little research, we discovered that the chances of winning a top prize with All Cash Gold is actually smaller than it is with All Cash. Take the time to look at things a little more closely, do your research and don’t get sucked in by clever marketing tactics and branding.
Is Buying 1 Pound Scratch Cards in Bulk Worthwhile?
When it comes to buying scratch cards, buying in bulk is an often touted tactic for increasing your chances. Part of the logic behind this is that scratch cards are printed in a roll, therefore if you buy as much for the roll as possible, you’ll have a larger percentage of the 100% prize fund available within them. There is some logic to this, but the division of the prize funds as detailed above works per batch rather than each individual roll. On top of that, buying an entire roll requires a hefty investment. For example, 1 pound cards come in rolls of 180, requiring £180, meanwhile, 2 pound cards come in rolls of 120, requiring £240.
Not Much Risk - But is There Much Gain?
With the number of prizes available, there actually isn’t too much of a risk when it comes to bulk buying scratch cards, however, there isn’t a very likely chance of a massive win either. In the majority of cases with scratch card bulk buying, you’ll either break even or find yourself over or under a little. For example, as a test, we bought 10 x £2 scratch cards, totalling a cost of £20. We won a total of £30 giving us up by £10. However, if you look at the numbers above we were slightly lucky here. Only three of our ten cards were winners - 2 x £5 and 1 x £10. That’s three prizes under the value of £20. If you use the number crunched in the above section, we could just as easily ended up with three £1 or £2 prizes.
Our Conclusion on UK Scratch Cards
There are few things we can take away from what we’ve learned here today regarding scratch cards in the UK. Firstly, the humble over-the-counter scratch card isn’t going anywhere anytime soon - and the online uptake is slower than in other gambling sectors. Secondly, you’re going to win small prizes more often than not, even if you bulk buy. Last but not least, don’t buy into the marketing hype.
Top online casinos
1.
$55 Stake Cash + 260K Gold Coins + 5% Rakeback
Players from United States of America accepted
2.
27.5 SC FREE and 57.5K Gold Coins
Players from United States of America accepted
3.
35 SC FREE and 1.75M WOW Coins
Players from United States of America accepted
4.
5 SC FREE + 250 Game Coins and 600 Diamonds
Players from United States of America accepted
5.
1000 Gems + 50% Extra gems On Your First Shards Purchase
Players from United States of America accepted
1 Pound Scratch Cards FAQ
❓ Can you buy packs of 1 pound scratch cards?
Bulk buying 1 pound and 2 pound scratch cards is a tactic often looked at by many, but often people don’t consider if they’re getting the scratch cards all from the same batch, and if that even increases your chances of winning anyway. That’s why we sent a team of
best casino
experts out to research and investigate this to report our findings back to you.
🔢 How many scratch cards are in a roll?
The amount of scratch cards in a roll differs depending on the type of scratch card, the brand and the price. For example, there are more £1 scratch cards in a roll than there are 2 pound scratch cards - it’s simple logic. Find out how much are in each of the most popular scratch card types at
Betting.co.uk.
🏆 What are the chances of winning on a 1 pound scratch card?
The chances of winning on a 1 pound scratch card are certainly higher than most sports bets, although the chances of winning are also more complicated to break down into odds. Nor are scratchies on a par with the average
online casino bonus. Confused? Thankfully, our experts at Betting.co.uk are pretty damn good at explaining, so why not head over to find out?
