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Poor valueActive$500 HOLIDAY BONUS · $5 · New York Lottery
$500 HOLIDAY BONUS: Poor value. A $5 ticket pays back $2.88 on average.
▼ -7.4 pts vs launch#15 of 16 · $5 NY games
▼ -7.4 pts vs launch#15 of 16 · $5 NY games
$500 HOLIDAY BONUS is a $5 scratch-off ticket from the New York state lottery. Its current expected value is 57.6%, down 7.4 percentage points from the launch value of 65.0%. 173 of the original 1,570 $500 top prizes are still unclaimed. Approximately 84% of the 4.9M printed tickets have been sold.
57.6%
expected return
1 in 3.93
odds of any win
173 of 1,570
$500 top prizes left
84%
claimed · 4.1M of 4.9M printed
Odds, in plain terms
If you bought 100 tickets today
Based on the 202,769 winning tickets still unclaimed.
13 win more than $5
$10 – $100, an actual profit
12 win their money back
a $5 prize, so you break even
75 win nothing
the house edge, made visible
Prizes of $500 or more hit about 1 in 4,626 tickets, so they won't show up in a batch of 100.
Value map
Where the $2.88 comes from
The average payback per ticket, split by prize size. Small wins do most of the work.
Small wins $5 – $500
$2.88 · 57.6% of price
Most of the value pays out as
$5 – $500 wins
202,769 winning tickets remain in this range: 100% of total value, and the wins you'll actually see.
Claim progress
84% of the print run claimed
Counting every ticket since launch, Nov 2025.
4.9M
tickets printed
4.1M
tickets claimed · 84%
800k
still out there
Prizes claimed over time
Claim chart needs more snapshot history
Sales are outpacing the jackpots: worse for buyers.
Jackpots left
11%
Tickets left
16%
11% of top prizes remain with 16% 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
#15 of 16
By expected return. Higher is better for the player.
Figures from New York Lottery published claim data.
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