F
Poor valueActiveCrossword · $3 · New Jersey Lottery
Crossword: Poor value. A $3 ticket pays back $1.60 on average.
▼ -11.7 pts vs launch#4 of 4 · $3 NJ games
▼ -11.7 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 53.3%, down 11.7 percentage points from the launch value of 65.0%. 1 of the original 20 $20,000 top prizes are still unclaimed. Approximately 88% of the 14.0M printed tickets have been sold.
53.3%
expected return
1 in 4.89
odds of any win
1 of 20
$20K top prizes left
88%
claimed · 12.3M of 14M printed
Odds, in plain terms
If you bought 100 tickets today
Based on the 343,006 winning tickets still unclaimed.
11 win more than $3
$5 – $100, an actual profit
9 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 241,273 tickets, so they won't show up in a batch of 100.
Value map
Where the $1.60 comes from
The average payback per ticket, split by prize size. Small wins do most of the work.
Small wins $3 – $500
$1.59 · 52.8% of price
Mid prizes $5K – $20K
$0.01 · 0.5% of price
Most of the value pays out as
$3 – $500 wins
343,004 winning tickets remain in this range: 99% of total value, and the wins you'll actually see.
Claim progress
88% of the print run claimed
Counting every ticket since launch, Dec 2025.
14M
tickets printed
12.3M
tickets claimed · 88%
1.7M
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
12%
5% of top prizes remain with 12% 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