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Weak valueActivePOT OF GOLD · $5 · New York Lottery
POT OF GOLD: Weak value. A $5 ticket pays back $3.15 on average.
▼ -1.8 pts vs launch#15 of 17 · $5 NY games
▼ -1.8 pts vs launch#15 of 17 · $5 NY games
POT OF GOLD is a $5 scratch-off ticket from the New York state lottery. Its current expected value is 63.0%, down 1.8 percentage points from the launch value of 64.8%. 1 of the original 3 $500,000 top prizes are still unclaimed. Approximately 64% of the 6.9M printed tickets have been sold.
63.0%
expected return
1 in 4.35
odds of any win
1 of 3
$500K top prizes left
64%
claimed · 4.4M of 6.9M printed
Odds, in plain terms
If you bought 100 tickets today
Based on the 571,764 winning tickets still unclaimed.
13 win more than $5
$10 – $200, 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 2,894 tickets, so they won't show up in a batch of 100.
Value map
Where the $3.15 comes from
The average payback per ticket, split by prize size. Small wins do most of the work.
Small wins $5 – $500
$2.93 · 58.7% of price
Mid prizes $3K – $500K
$0.22 · 4.3% of price
Most of the value pays out as
$5 – $500 wins
571,749 winning tickets remain in this range: 93% of total value, and the wins you'll actually see.
Claim progress
64% of the print run claimed
Counting every ticket since launch, May 2026.
6.9M
tickets printed
4.4M
tickets claimed · 64%
2.5M
still out there
Prizes claimed over time
Claim chart needs more snapshot history
Sales are outpacing the jackpots: worse for buyers.
Jackpots left
33%
Tickets left
36%
33% of top prizes remain with 36% 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 17
By expected return. Higher is better for the player.
Figures from New York Lottery published claim data.
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