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Average valueActive$1,000,000 MUST LOVE DOGS · $5 · New York Lottery
$1,000,000 MUST LOVE DOGS: Average value. A $5 ticket pays back $3.54 on average.
▲ +3.6 pts vs launch#5 of 16 · $5 NY games
▲ +3.6 pts vs launch#5 of 16 · $5 NY games
$1,000,000 MUST LOVE DOGS is a $5 scratch-off ticket from the New York state lottery. Its current expected value is 70.8%, up 3.6 percentage points from the launch value of 67.2%. 2 of the original 3 $50K Annual Installments top prizes are still unclaimed. Approximately 60% of the 8.1M printed tickets have been sold.
70.8%
expected return
1 in 4.23
odds of any win
2 of 3
$1M jackpots left
60%
claimed · 4.9M of 8.1M printed
Odds, in plain terms
If you bought 100 tickets today
Based on the 772,622 winning tickets still unclaimed.
13 win more than $5
$10 – $100, an actual profit
10 win their money back
a $5 prize, so you break even
77 win nothing
the house edge, made visible
Prizes of $500 or more hit about 1 in 17,687 tickets, so they won't show up in a batch of 100.
Value map
Where the $3.54 comes from
The average payback per ticket, split by prize size. Small wins do most of the work.
Small wins $5 – $500
$2.93 · 58.6% of price
Mid prizes $2K
$0.00 · 0.0% of price
Jackpots $1M+
$0.61 · 12.2% of price
Realistic return, jackpots set aside
58.6%
Just 2 tickets out of 3.3M carry the $1M+ prizes. This is your expected return if none of them is yours.
Most of the value pays out as
$5 – $500 wins
772,617 winning tickets remain in this range: 83% of total value, and the wins you'll actually see.
Claim progress
60% claimed, and the jackpots are still out there
Counting every ticket since launch, Apr 2026.
8.1M
tickets printed
4.9M
tickets claimed · 60%
3.3M
still out there
Prizes claimed over time
Claim chart needs more snapshot history
Jackpots are outlasting sales: good for buyers.
Jackpots left
67%
Tickets left
40%
67% of top prizes remain with only 40% of tickets left to claim them.
Where to buy
New York Lottery
At retailers statewide, or online through Jackpocket. Affiliate link: Scratchstats may earn a commission.
Rank vs $5 NY peers
#5 of 16
By expected return. Higher is better for the player.
Figures from New York Lottery published claim data.
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