Scratch: How It Works, Odds and Payouts

Scratch is a nine-cell scratch card. You pick a risk level and play; the card shows nine cells, each a symbol or a blank. If any symbol appears three or more times, you win the multiplier for that symbol. If none does, the card loses.

Coins are virtual and have no cash value. All nine cells are drawn on our servers when you play, so scratching is only the reveal, and it uses the same six symbols and pay shapes as Slots: How It Works, Odds and Payouts.

How a round works

1. Choose Low, Medium or High risk and set your bet.
2. Tap to play. Nine cells are drawn independently.
3. If a symbol shows three or more times, you win its multiplier. If more than one symbol qualifies, only the highest-paying counts.
4. Blanks never pay, and four, five or more matching symbols pay exactly what three do.

What goes in a cell

Each cell is drawn from the Slots symbol strip plus a blank, so a share of every card is empty. The blank share is what keeps the hit rate sensible.

The blank is 45.9% of cells at Low, 48.7% at Medium and 51.2% at High.

Pay tables and chance of each win

A symbol wins when at least 3 of the 9 cells show it. The "chance" is the probability that a card has at least three of that symbol (before the higher-paying symbol rule decides).

Overall, a card wins 33.9% of the time at Low risk, 32.7% at Medium and 32.5% at High. Note that a cherry win at High risk pays 1.11x, barely above your bet. The shared limits are on the odds page.

A worked example

You play a High risk card with a 100-coin bet. Cherries are the common win: 34 of 205 cells (16.6%) are cherries, so about 17.6% of cards contain three or more. They pay 1.11x, or 111 coins. Sevens are only 3 of 205 cells (1.46%), so a card with three or more of them happens about once in 4,065 cards (0.025%) and pays 745.80x, or 74,580 coins. If a card has both three bells and three diamonds, only the diamond pay counts: you never get both. Average the lot and you get 97 coins back per 100.

Max win and caps

The biggest Scratch payout is 745.80x the bet, for three or more sevens at High risk. That is well under the game-wide limits of 50,000x and 250,000,000 coins per round.

What is the same as Slots

Scratch and Slots: How It Works, Odds and Payouts share their symbols, their base pay table shape and their risk names, so the sevens at High risk are the headline prize in both. They differ in the draw: Slots takes three symbols and requires them to line up; Scratch takes nine cells and needs three of a kind anywhere, plus blanks. A scratch card therefore wins about a third of the time at all three risk levels, while Slots wins between 27% and 68% depending on risk. Lucky Cookie: how it plays, odds and payouts started as a fortune-cookie version of this card but now has its own rules. For how slot maths works in general, see Free Slots Explained: How They Differ From Real Slots.

Tips that hold up

• Scratching does not change the card. The result is final before you start; revealing it quickly or slowly is the same.
• Risk is the real choice. Low gives small wins about a third of the time; High gives rare large wins.
• A near miss is not a pattern. Two sevens on a card tells you nothing about the next card.
• Four of a kind is not better. The game pays a flat amount for three or more.

Play with limits

Fast reveals make it easy to buy "just one more card". Set a limit before you start and see Play Safely in Cashout Arcade: Limits and Breaks for tools. Cashout Arcade is for adults aged 18+, uses virtual coins and has no real-money prizes.