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Strong valueActive40 Years of Play! · $40 · California Lottery
40 Years of Play!: Strong value. A $40 ticket pays back $32.83 on average.
▲ +1.9 pts vs launch#1 of 2 · $40 CA gamesUpdated Aug 2, 2026, 12:05 AM
▲ +1.9 pts vs launch#1 of 2 · $40 CA gamesUpdated Aug 2, 2026, 12:05 AM
40 Years of Play! is a $40 scratch-off ticket from the California state lottery. Its current expected value is 82.1%, up 1.9 percentage points from the launch value of 80.2%. 1 of the original 7 $15,000,000 top prizes are still unclaimed. Approximately 89% of the 21.3M printed tickets have been sold.
82.1%
expected return
1 in 2.85
odds of any win
1 of 7
$15M jackpots left
89%
claimed · 18.9M of 21.3M printed
Odds, in plain terms
If you bought 100 tickets today
Based on the 826,364 winning tickets still unclaimed.
14 win more than $40
$80 – $400, an actual profit
20 win their money back
a $40 prize, so you break even
66 win nothing
the house edge, made visible
Prizes of $500 or more hit about 1 in 2,934 tickets, so they won't show up in a batch of 100.
Value map
Where the $32.83 comes from
The average payback per ticket, split by prize size. Small wins do most of the work.
Small wins $40 – $400
$25.15 · 62.9% of price
Mid prizes $1K – $100K
$1.41 · 3.5% of price
Jackpots $15M+
$6.27 · 15.7% of price
Realistic return, jackpots set aside
66.4%
Just 1 ticket out of 2.4M carry the $15M+ prizes. This is your expected return if none of them is yours.
Most of the value pays out as
$40 – $400 wins
825,548 winning tickets remain in this range: 77% of total value, and the wins you'll actually see.
Claim progress
89% claimed, and the jackpots are still out there
Counting every ticket since launch, Jan 2025.
21.3M
tickets printed
18.9M
tickets claimed · 89%
2.4M
still out there
Prizes claimed over time
Claim chart needs more snapshot history
Jackpots are outlasting sales: good for buyers.
Jackpots left
14%
Tickets left
11%
14% of top prizes remain with only 11% of tickets left to claim them.
Where to buy
California Lottery
At retailers statewide, or online through Jackpocket. Affiliate link: Scratchstats may earn a commission.
Rank vs $40 CA peers
#1 of 2
By expected return. Higher is better for the player.
1
40 Years of Play!
82.1%
2
Royal Jackpot
80.8%
Figures from California Lottery published claim data, updated Aug 2, 2026, 12:05 AM.
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