Whether you like popping to your local newsagents to buy scratch cards or prefer the online version that is widely available at casino websites, there’s no denying that this form of gambling can be tremendous fun, with punters able to land an instant win within seconds of playing.
It’s a little bit like the adult version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. In that Roald Dahl novel, Willy Wonka puts five Golden Tickets in his confectionary bars. There’s a scramble to be the winner of a lucky ticket, especially as you got a free entry to the factory and a lifetime’s supply of chocolate!
While no gambling company is going to give you unlimited chocolate as a prize, some nice cash amounts can be claimed when you enjoy a scratch card experience, and it’s something that many of us do regularly.
How Can You Win by Playing Scratch Cards?
If you’re going to an actual shop to buy a physical scratchcard, you can choose from extensive selections available. They come in all shapes and sizes, with the price sometimes differing between the different tickets. The more expensive scratch cards generally mean you have the chance to land a bigger prize.
Once you have purchased your scratchcard, you can then start scratching with a coin. It usually involves scratching off the silver covering to reveal either amount of money or a particular symbol. It should explain on the card how you can win for that specific game, and you might have to match the same money value or symbols to profit.
Once all the panels have been revealed, you then need to establish whether:
- You have won with your scratchcard
- You have lost with your scratchcard
If it’s the first option, then you can work out how much you have won. If it’s a modest amount of cash, it’s a simple case of taking it back to the shop where you bought it. However, for an amount which is worth hundreds or even thousands, it might be that you can phone a number and get the money sent to your bank account.
How to Play Online Scratch Card Games
If you’re an online casino player, you might already have noticed that many casino websites have a Scratch cards section, and this allows customers to play scratch cards online. It works in a similar way to buying the cards from a shop, with punters simply funding their casino account using one of the payment methods available and then using that online balance to play scratch cards.
For example, the William Hill Casino is one of the most popular in the world, and they have a “Scratch cards” section populated with all sorts of scratchcard games, including the following:
- Breaking Bad
- Call of the Colosseum
- Cash Out Cupcake
- Cherry Blossoms
- Cleopatra
- Deal or No Deal
- Home and Away
- Merlin’s Millions
- Royal Charm
- Zodiac’s Fortune
So we might pay a visit to the Breaking Bad online scratchcard. It is based on the smash-hit box set featuring Walter White and Jesse Pinkman, who cook up a whole world of trouble, and the Breaking Bad theme is now used at online casinos across the world due to how recognizable the brand is.
If we choose to play at this online scratchcard, we first load up the game and pick what stake we want to play for. The amount of money you use to purchase a ticket is directly proportional to the cash prizes that you can win. There is usually the chance to win up to $10,000, depending on your stake size.
What happens with Breaking Bad online scratchcard and many others is that there are some lucky numbers that you want to match with. There might be five golden numbers, and you have to match them with the fifteen silver numbers that you are given. You can go to each box in turn and reveal it to see if it’s a winner.
Why Are Scratch Cards So Popular?
It should be noted that while many shoppers might throw in a scratchcard to their groceries when popping out for essentials like bread, milk or alcohol (!), the bottom line is that this is a form of gambling like anything else. After all, by buying a physical scratch card or playing online scratch cards, you are essentially gambling that the money you’re spending will return you a profit.
However, modern life is unusually fast-paced, and scratch cards are great for those who want to experience the instant win. While there are a time and a place to have a sports bet on a football match and the same applies to spin the reels at your favourite slot machine, there’s something particularly exciting about revealing the unknown panels on a scratch card.
Perhaps you’ve never bought a scratchcard before and don’t understand the appeal at scratching away on the silver covering with a coin. However, once you have landed a win, you might understand the excitement that goes with the territory. There tend to be cash prizes yielded on a reasonably regular basis, whether you’re actually buying scratch cards or playing online.
What Are the Best Scratch Cards to Play?
As mentioned, when you go to a shop, there are generally a variety of available scratch cards, and the National Lottery often creates them for the country in which you’re residing. That means that you are effectively buying tickets from a licensed operator who has to be approved and regulated, with the payouts are checked on a regular basis to ensure that this form of gambling is fair.
However, there does tend to be differences in the number of times you can win on average with different scratch cards. Some scratch cards will yield a more regular return for smaller amounts of cash, while other scratch cards will pay out less often but sometimes trigger bigger payouts like a cash jackpot, which means customers can be more patient.
The Advantages of Playing Online Scratch Cards
When you play online scratch cards, you have several advantages over actually buying a ticket from your local shop, and the first one is that you don’t have to leave the house to play online. You can simply visit a scratchcard website, and this includes many reputable online casinos who offer scratch card games as part of their service.
The second thing is that you can often earn a casino bonus when you register a new online account to play scratch cards. That means you could get a bonus added to your first deposit, and that bonus could be used to play scratch card games, although it’s worth checking the terms and conditions on this.
You also have a brilliant range of online scratch card options when it comes to playing at a casino website. As listed above, many operators have a wide variety of choices, with players able to choose different themes. There’s also the chance to adjust your stake according to how much you want to win.
Then we have the fact that you can usually find RTP information when you’re playing online scratch cards. RTP stands for Return to Player, and that means that you will see a percentage that represents the average payout with every game, including the online scratch cards.
How Can I Make a Profit from Playing Scratch Cards?
There is generally no skill involved when it comes to playing online scratch cards. While some customers might claim to have a “system” or be on a winning run, the bottom line is that they wouldn’t exist if the majority of punters won by scratching cards and winning regular prizes.
However, that’s not to say you can’t make money from a scratchcard session. You can access an offline or online card and scratch off the symbols to achieve an instant win. People are winning every minute through this form of gambling, and it can be a fun way of playing for large cash prizes.
We recommend setting a daily, weekly or monthly limit when it comes to playing scratch cards and sticking to it. It might be that some weeks, you’re not having much luck and have to accept there are no returns, although other weeks might see a customer have better luck and have a nice little win.
The beauty of online scratch cards is that there are many different themes available, with customers able to try out a different game each time. Just make sure that you read the rules before you scratch. For some games, it’s important not to scratch off all the panels as you have to be selective over the ones that will land you a win.
If you’re playing a real scratchcard game, then make sure you thoroughly check your scratch card even if you think you have initially lost. It might be that you have won an amount, and it’s also worth checking this with the newsagent.
