Scratch cards are fun ways to try and make some quick cash without having to spend too much money. Like playing the lottery, it's pretty much all luck. But, believe it or not, there are ways for you to improve your odds of winning at the scratch-offs. 

While we can't guarantee that you'll get a winning scratch card every time, we can certainly help you get the most bang for your buck. Interested in learning more? Continue reading and we'll walk you through everything you need to know. 

1. Buy Intelligently

The number of scratch cards that are available to purchase these days is astronomical. For people who aren't familiar with scratch cards, the experience can be totally overwhelming. There are so many different prizes, brands, prices, and designs that it can all get confusing.

When you go to buy a scratch card, do some research beforehand and know which type you're going to purchase. Some cards are way more valuable per cost than others. 

Many people are tempted to buy big quantities of the cheapest cards but this isn't a good idea. The cheapest cards tend to have the lowest payouts and offer you the least chances of winning.

Instead, go ahead and buy fewer higher-priced cards. When it comes to scratch cards, quality is certainly more important than quantity.

2. Play Them Like Slots

People who are experienced at playing the slots will hang around the machines and wait until multiple people fail at hitting the jackpot. These long droughts signal to the player that the big jackpot is getting closer.  

While you don't have to wait around the store all day, you could go to the vendor who sells the scratch cards and ask if any winning cards were purchased lately.

3. Buy in Bulk

One method that a lot of experienced scratch card players like to do is buy their tickets in bulk. That means going to the store and buying multiple cards in one shopping trip. This is opposed to buying just one ticket each time you go to the store. 

If you purchase in bulk, you can increase your odds of winning. The card manufacturer will usually put a win somewhere within the many scratch cards. So if you buy in bulk, there are good odds that the winning ticket will be somewhere in the middle of that pile. 

4. Keep Your Old Tickets

No, we're not asking you to hold onto your old tickets for nostalgia purposes. We're asking you to hold onto them because humans are prone to making oversights and mistakes. While you're going through your scratch cards, you might think its a loser without fully inspecting it.

It's a good idea to keep your old tickets in a safe place and revisit them from time to time in order to see if you might have missed anything the first time. And in some cases, the jackpots on scratch cards are never won. And when that happens, the manufacturer might give out prizes to losing tickets. 

Storing tickets is easy so you don't have anything to lose by keeping them in a safe place in your home. 

5. Stick to a Budget 

It's important to keep your cool when you're playing with scratch cards. If you end up buying too many losing tickets, you might get frustrated and go out and buy a ton. But this isn't a smart move.

In the end, you could end up just losing a lot of money. If you want to get serious about playing scratch cards, then it's important that you set a weekly or monthly budget for yourself and then make sure that you stick to it. 

Sticking to a budget will stop you from letting your spending get out of control. 

6. Research the Scratch Cards

Believe it or not, there actually is a method for picking more winnable scratch cards. The Singleton Method was discovered by Mohan Srivastava, a Canadian statistician in 2003. He realized that with certain scratch cards, you could know if the card was a winner or loser simply by looking at the layouts and patterns on the tickets.

While most people think that the machines that make scratch cards put on the numbers totally at random, this isn't the case at all. The card companies need to control how many winning and losing cards there are in circulation. So they have specific algorithms.

Some of those algorithms are so lazy that people who are smart enough can tell if the card's a winner just by looking at it. 

7. Pick the Right Game for You

Sticking to one scratch card game can help to significantly increase your odds of winning. Each card manufacturer makes so many winning and losing tickets. And the more you play, the more losing tickets you take out of circulation.

If you spread your spending over several different games, then you could just be taking one losing ticket out of each game. And that won't do you much good. 

Instead, pick a game that's fun to play and comes with a big payout. Then stick with that game for as long as you can. You'll be amazed by how much better you do in the long run. 

The Importance of Knowing How to Increase Your Scratch Card Odds

By knowing how to improve your chances of walking away with a winning scratch card, you can win money and have fun at the same time. And while scratch cards usually depend on luck, you may find yourself buying a lot more winners by following the methods above.