A
Strong valueActive$100,000 A YEAR · $20 · Virginia Lottery
$100,000 A YEAR: Strong value. A $20 ticket pays back $17.11 on average.
▲ +9.0 pts vs launch#3 of 13 · $20 VA games
▲ +9.0 pts vs launch#3 of 13 · $20 VA games
$100,000 A YEAR is a $20 scratch-off ticket from the Virginia state lottery. Its current expected value is 85.5%, up 9.0 percentage points from the launch value of 76.5%. 1 of the original 3 $1,000,000* top prizes are still unclaimed. Approximately 84% of the 1.8M printed tickets have been sold.
85.5%
expected return
1 in 2.91
odds of any win
1 of 3
$1M jackpots left
84%
claimed · 1.5M of 1.8M printed
Odds, in plain terms
If you bought 100 tickets today
Based on the 97,170 winning tickets still unclaimed.
24 win more than $20
$30 – $100, an actual profit
10 win their money back
a $20 prize, so you break even
66 win nothing
the house edge, made visible
Prizes of $500 or more hit about 1 in 271 tickets, so they won't show up in a batch of 100.
Value map
Where the $17.11 comes from
The average payback per ticket, split by prize size. Small wins do most of the work.
Small wins $20 – $500
$13.50 · 67.5% of price
Mid prizes $20K
$0.07 · 0.4% of price
Jackpots $1M+
$3.54 · 17.7% of price
Realistic return, jackpots set aside
67.9%
Just 1 ticket out of 283k carry the $1M+ prizes. This is your expected return if none of them is yours.
Most of the value pays out as
$20 – $500 wins
97,168 winning tickets remain in this range: 79% of total value, and the wins you'll actually see.
Claim progress
84% claimed, and the jackpots are still out there
Counting every ticket since launch, May 2025.
1.8M
tickets printed
1.5M
tickets claimed · 84%
283k
still out there
Prizes claimed over time
Claim chart needs more snapshot history
Jackpots are outlasting sales: good for buyers.
Jackpots left
33%
Tickets left
16%
33% of top prizes remain with only 16% of tickets left to claim them.
Where to buy
Virginia Lottery
At retailers statewide, or online through Jackpocket. Affiliate link: Scratchstats may earn a commission.
Rank vs $20 VA peers
#3 of 13
By expected return. Higher is better for the player.
Figures from Virginia Lottery published claim data.
S
Scratchstats