A roll of $10 scratch off lottery tickets in California typically contains 250 tickets. The California Lottery offers several different $10 scratchers at any given time, but a standard full roll contains 250 tickets regardless of the specific game.
California Lottery’s $10 Scratchers
The California Lottery provides a wide selection of instant scratch off games for players to choose from. Scratchers range in price from $1 up to $30, with the $10 price point being very popular.
Some of the current $10 scratch off games offered by the California Lottery include:
- 50X the Cash
- Ultimate Millions
- $500 Frenzy
- Full of $500s
- Cash Blast
- Money Bags
- Triple Twist
The specific prizes and odds vary for each game, but they are all $10 instant scratch offs. Players can choose whichever game interests them the most when purchasing scratchers at lottery retailers throughout the state.
How Many Tickets in a $10 Scratcher Roll
Regardless of which $10 scratch off game it is, a full, unopened roll from the California Lottery contains 250 tickets. This is the standard amount for all $10 games.
Rolls are how the scratch off tickets are distributed from the Lottery to retail locations. Rather than counting out individual tickets, retailers can quickly load a full roll into their lottery ticket vending machines.
Having a standardized 250 tickets per roll makes inventory management easier for retailers. When a roll runs out, they simply have to load a new one to continue selling that particular game.
Why 250 Tickets per Roll?
The California Lottery likely settled on 250 tickets as the standard roll size for a few reasons:
- It’s a large enough quantity to be efficient for retailers to load rolls rather than individual tickets.
- But small enough that a single roll does not contain too many remaining tickets if a game is not selling well. This avoids wasting large quantities of unsold tickets when a game ends.
- It’s a round number that’s easy to work with for tracking inventory and payouts.
Overall, 250 tickets per $10 roll balances efficiency, waste avoidance, and simple math. Many other state lotteries also use 250 as their standard roll size for this same set of reasons.
Buying Full or Partial $10 Scratcher Rolls
While lottery retailers receive full 250 ticket rolls of each $10 game, players can purchase partial rolls as well as individual tickets.
Some options for buying $10 scratch offs include:
- Single tickets – Players can buy individual tickets from a scratch off game roll. Retailers will continue selling individual tickets until the roll is empty.
- Partial roll – Some retailers will sell a partial portion of a roll, such as 50 or 100 tickets from the same game.
- Full roll – Avid players sometimes request a brand new, sealed full roll of 250 tickets. This guarantees getting sequential tickets from the same roll.
Buying a full roll does not improve the odds, since every ticket has the same odds of winning a prize. However, serious players enjoy the thrill of scratching off an entire roll of sequential tickets.
Scratcher Roll Costs
The cost of buying scratch off rolls depends on the quantity:
- Single $10 Ticket: $10
- 10 Ticket Partial Roll: $100
- 50 Ticket Partial Roll: $500
- Full 250 Ticket Roll: $2,500
As expected, a full unopened roll of 250 sequential $10 scratch off tickets costs $2,500. That’s 250 tickets at the $10 price point.
Retailers can sell any number of tickets from a roll. So players can request 10, 50, 100 or however many they want below the 250 max per roll.
Scratcher Roll Odds and Payouts
The odds of winning any prize or top prize are the same whether buying a single $10 scratch off ticket or a whole roll:
- Each $10 Ticket has fixed odds for each prize.
- Buying 250 tickets does not change the odds.
- It simply allows playing 250 tickets sequentially from one roll.
However, buying an entire 250 ticket roll does increase the absolute chances of winning some sort of prize. With 250 chances versus just 1 or 2 tickets, the player has more opportunities to hit a winner.
If the $10 game has a 1 in 4 chance of winning any prize, for example, that player could expect to win about 62 times from a full 250 ticket roll (250 tickets / 4 chances to win).
The tradeoff is that buying more tickets also increases the cost. So the player must weigh whether the extra cost justifies having more chances to win.
Checking Scratcher Roll Remainders
Retailers can inform players how many remaining tickets are left on a partial roll. This helps when deciding whether to purchase that remaining portion.
Checking for low remainder counts on partial rolls also improves the odds. Statistically, prizes tend to be clustered around the last portion of scratch off rolls.
So savvy players sometimes request “low remainder rolls” to take advantage of that quirk in how rolls are randomly loaded with winners.
Finding $10 Scratcher Roll Prices
To find retailers selling full or partial rolls of $10 scratch off tickets in California:
- Ask at local convenience stores, gas stations, and liquor stores that sell lottery tickets if they offer roll sales.
- Search Google for “California Lottery roll sales” to find specialized retailers selling rolls.
- Join online lottery player forums and ask for roll purchase recommendations in your area.
- Visit lottery retailer websites to check if they sell scratch off rolls.
With $10 rolls costing $2,500, retailers may be discreet about marketing them or only sell to trusted regular customers. But they can be found by interacting with local lottery retailers and networks.
Is Buying a Whole Roll Worth It?
Ultimately, the decision of whether to buy a full 250 ticket roll of California $10 scratchers comes down to personal preference and budgets.
The pros of buying a whole roll include:
- Guaranteed sequential run of 250 tickets from the same lot.
- More overall chances to win smaller prizes.
- Opportunity to hit a larger jackpot prize.
- Fun of scratching off an entire roll.
The cons of buying a full roll include:
- High upfront cost of $2,500.
- Odds of winning jackpots are still very small.
- Can lose the entire $2,500 wager.
For many lottery players, the cost of a full roll would be too risky. But frequent players that can afford it enjoy the excitement and elevated odds of buying 250 sequential tickets.
In the end, a roll of California $10 scratch off tickets contains 250 tickets. So buying a full roll guarantees getting all sequential tickets from that same game and roll. While costing $2,500 upfront, it provides the most chances to win versus buying individual tickets. With smart play, a roll purchase can offer excitement and hopefully decent returns.