F
Poor valueActiveCrossword · $3 · New Jersey Lottery
Crossword: Poor value. A $3 ticket pays back $1.54 on average.
▼ -13.7 pts vs launch#4 of 4 · $3 NJ games
▼ -13.7 pts vs launch#4 of 4 · $3 NJ games
Crossword is a $3 scratch-off ticket from the New Jersey state lottery. Its current expected value is 51.3%, down 13.7 percentage points from the launch value of 65.0%. 1 of the original 20 $20,000 top prizes are still unclaimed. Approximately 90% of the 14.0M printed tickets have been sold.
51.3%
expected return
1 in 4.89
odds of any win
1 of 20
$20K top prizes left
90%
claimed · 12.6M of 14M printed
Odds, in plain terms
If you bought 100 tickets today
Based on the 291,962 winning tickets still unclaimed.
10 win more than $3
$5 – $100, an actual profit
10 win their money back
a $3 prize, so you break even
80 win nothing
the house edge, made visible
Prizes of $500 or more hit about 1 in 239,884 tickets, so they won't show up in a batch of 100.
Value map
Where the $1.54 comes from
The average payback per ticket, split by prize size. Small wins do most of the work.
Small wins $3 – $500
$1.52 · 50.8% of price
Mid prizes $5K – $20K
$0.02 · 0.6% of price
Most of the value pays out as
$3 – $500 wins
291,960 winning tickets remain in this range: 99% of total value, and the wins you'll actually see.
Claim progress
90% of the print run claimed
Counting every ticket since launch, Dec 2025.
14M
tickets printed
12.6M
tickets claimed · 90%
1.4M
still out there
Prizes claimed over time
Claim chart needs more snapshot history
Sales are outpacing the jackpots: worse for buyers.
Jackpots left
5%
Tickets left
10%
5% of top prizes remain with 10% of tickets left to claim them.
Where to buy
New Jersey Lottery
At retailers statewide, or online through Jackpocket. Affiliate link: Scratchstats may earn a commission.
Rank vs $3 NJ peers
#4 of 4
By expected return. Higher is better for the player.
Figures from New Jersey Lottery published claim data.
S
Scratchstats