If i Were To Purchase 100 Dollers worth of scartch off lottery tickets .. what would be the best idea?

Maquis47 has the best answer so far. The truth is it just doesn't matter! On average, you'll get back 50 cents for every dollar you spend. This is true of the $1, $2, $3, $5, $10, $20, or whatever other value scratch ticket. So - take $100 and buy any combination of scratch tickets. You will AVERAGE $50 worth of 'winners'. Now just by the law of averages, you're MORE likely to reach that $50 average if you buy 100 one-dollar tickets. I would bet if you do this that you'll win no less than $40, and no more than $60. As you get fewer tickets, your variance will be greater. In other words, if you go to the extreme and get 5 twenty-dollar tickets you've got a greater chance of getting nothing back at all, but you've also got a better chance at coming close to getting your $100 back. From years of experience, and thousands of dollars p*ssed down the drain, here is what I will guess your chances are if you go with the twenty-dollar tickets: I'll give you a 10% chance of getting back absolutely nothing. A 15% chance of getting back only $20. A 60% chance of getting back either $40 or $60. A 10% chance of getting back $80 or $100. And I'll give you only a 5% chance of getting more than $100. So if you want your best chance of getting back the average, which is around $50 worth of "winners", then go with the $1 tickets. If you really want to gamble and give yourself a very small chance of actually making money, then go with the bigger tickets. I would bet $5,000 that says you will NOT make back more than your $100. I would bet $500 that says you will win back somewhere from $30 to $65 no matter what combination you pick. If you do this, make sure you only do it once. On more than one occasion I've bought entire rolls of lottery tickets. Friends have done the same. Invariably we would always get back approximately 50% of what we spent.

The lottery is for dumb people who don't realize that the government is strapped for cash and using it as an additional way to get more money than your tax dollars.

Well it sounds like you're going into this with your eyes open so I'd have to agree with LegFu. Why are you buying the tickets in the first place? Do you want a big payoff or do you just enjoy scratching the tickets? Check out the maximum prize for each type of ticket and buy the ones that appeal to you. If you've got your eye set on the "$1000 a week for Life" style prizes then buy those. If you want a lot of tickets to scratch then stick with the $1 ones. Overall you need to realize that you'll most likely win back only about $50. Maybe a little more if you're lucky or perhaps less. If you can't afford to lose the $100 then don't buy the tickets.

I think the higher the price of the scratch off, the better chance of winning a "big" prize. So I'd say 33 $3.00 tickets. That way if you lose each one, you still have 1 dollar left to cheer yourself up with a chocolate candy bar =D

The odds on the tickets vary from state to state... But I don't think anyway will have much better odds than anything else. I know the higher denominated slot machines in casino are a little looser than the lower ones. If the same holds true for lottery tickets, then I'd get the $10 or $20 ones. But if you really enjoying the thrill of the scratch, then get 100 tickets. You'll get more enjoyment that way.

I think it would be best if you put your money into a savings account and let it build interest if you want your money to go somewhere. Or if your just looking to waste money I'll take that 100 dollars, i could really use it as one of my monthly car payments.

Spread it around . Make it more fun you never know. 25 -1 dollar 10- 2 dollar 5- 3 dollar 2- 5 dollar 1-10 dollar 1-20 dollar