Top-dollar ticket in the nation's capital
By Kate Northrop
The DC Lottery launched its first-ever $50 scratch-off ticket this month, raising the bar for the most expensive lottery ticket available in the District.
Lottery players in Washington, D.C. no longer have to drive into Maryland or Virginia to get their hands on a $50 lottery ticket — they can now do so right in the nation's capital.
The "Extreme 500X Fortune" scratch-off game is the DC Lottery's first $50 lottery ticket to land in Washington, D.C. retailers, offering two top prizes of $2 million and $18 million in total prizes.
The lowest prize a player can win is $100 — double the cost of the ticket. Plus, the game offers players entry in a Second Chance contest for another chance at $500,000 in additional prizes.
"We are thrilled to introduce our first $50 scratcher," DC Lottery Director of Marketing Jayre Reaves said in a press release. "This ticket not only represents record-setting winning opportunities but also showcases the high-quality gaming entertainment that our players have come to expect. These potentially life-changing prizes at an innovative price point keep us at the forefront of trends alongside neighboring jurisdictions and lotteries nationwide."
Over the past few years, $50 scratch-off tickets have taken off in several states. The Texas Lottery was the first in the nation to launch a $50 scratch-off in 2007, called "$130 Million Spectacular," and featured over $133 million in prizes with three top prizes of $5 million and six $1 million prizes.
In addition to the two top prizes of $2 million, the DC Lottery's $50 game offers 4 second-tier prizes of $50,000, 14 third-tier prizes of $15,000, and 14 fourth-tier prizes of $5,000. The game is also loaded with $250 and $100 lower-tier prizes.
The $50 "Extreme 500X Fortune" is currently available at licensed Washington, D.C. retailers. The overall odds of winning any prize in the game are 1 in 3.45.
(Click to display full-size in gallery)
Seems to be not worth the money. Less than 100 Top prize with only 14 of $5,000 and $15,000 and 4 of $50,000 and 2 of the top $1.5 million. The vast majority of the prizes, about 24,000 of them are for $100 and $250. No information on the website of how many tickets they printed, but the odds of the top prizes are 1 in about 225,000 and overall odds of getting any prize at 1 in 3.45, according to the D.C. lottery.
The Delaware Lottery also just introduced a much better $50 scratch off in honor of its filthiest Anniversary with odds of 1 in 3.76 with 450,000 tickets printing and lots of top prizes including 9 of $50,000, 4 of $100,000 and 2 of $1 million plus lots of $500, $1,000 and $2,500. A much better buy, if you as
Only $2,000,000 top prize? I wouldn't wake Ulysses up for less than $10,000,000.
I ain't scratching.
They used COVID to increase the price point on goods and services. They implement tariffs to increase the price point even more. Now lottery is getting into the act. Outright greed is what this is. Heck that's five dozen eggs!
nope there greedy too just like mega millions no better odds just a waste of money
$50 ticket and the top prize is $2 million! Everyone is following mega millions footsteps ! Makes me like NJ scratchers a little more
The ticket advertises a top prize of $2 million, but the prizes and odds chart on the website says $1,520,000. I'm confused.
https://dclottery.com/dc-scratchers/extreme-500x-fortune-0
That's the lump sum cash you get if you want it all up front. You only get a full $2,000,000 if you take it as an annuity- in this case, I would guess that would be $100,000/year X 20 years. Another way the lotteries make everything sound larger than life, since 99% of the winners take the lump sum.
That makes sense.
Even with the top prize being only $1.52 million, this is actually a very good return for a lottery.
82.6% of the ticket price is awarded in prizes (including the second chance drawing). Previously the highest I ever saw was the Texas $50 scratch-off at 75%.
Usually a lottery will rip you off with a measly 50% payback. Some of the games are a little better at 60% but still not worth playing. If I were going to drop $50 on the lottery all at once, I would play this game.
This ticket has a slightly better than 1 in 4 chance of doubling your money (the $100 prize).
Yes, a 2 million dollar top prize does not seem like a lot of money for a $50 scratch of. I believe it has to do with location. Those of us who live in the (DMV) Washington DC, Maryland and Virginia area don't expect our scratch-off top prizes to be very high to begin with. The perception is that the Nations Capital area residents have money already so they don't need high value scratch-off tickets. For our residents who do want a better deal in $50 scratch-off will have to go to Maryland or Virginia. The top prize in Maryland for a $50 scratch-off is 5 million and the top prize in Virginia is 7 million dollar ticket. The best scratch-off deal in the nation is Texas with their $100 stratch-off with a top prize of 20 million dollars. The bottom line is, how much are you willing to spend to win any top prize, some of them are not worth it but that is up to each individual.
too much money and not alot of Transparency!! tell us How many winners are they going to BE ???/
Calm down dude, it is NOT that serious. All of the information about the DC $50 scratch-off is on their website. Here is how the prizes will be distributed.
$2M -TOP Prize will be 2 winners
$50K-2ND Prize will be 4 winners
$15K-3RD Prize will be 14 winners
$5K-4TH Prize will be 14 winners
$1K-5TH Prize will be 24 winners
$500-6TH Prize will be 33 winners
$250-7TH Prize will be 10,432 winners
$100-8TH Prize will be 121,332 winners