District of Columbia Holiday Scratchers: What to Buy and What to Skip (October 2026)
1 District of Columbia holiday scratchers are on sale as of October 14, 2026. The best of them by current payout is Festive $250's ($5) at 70.6%, 1 in 3.85 for any prize. As a group they are ordinary: a median payout of 70.6% against 71.4% across all 59 games on sale.
District of Columbia holiday scratchers on sale, best payout first
- 1 $5
Festive $250's
#164170.6% payout now- EV / ticket
- $3.53
- Any prize
- 1 in 3.85
- Beats price
- 1 in 9.26
- Top prizes
- 335 of 871
Best payout
Payout is what the remaining prize pool returns per dollar; profit odds count only prizes larger than the ticket price. Definitions are on the methodology page.
See this game in a table
| # Game | Price | Payout now | EV / ticket | Any-prize odds | Cash odds | Profit odds | Top prize | Top left | 7-day |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Festive $250's | $5 | 70.6% | $3.53 | 1 in 3.85 | 1 in 3.85 | 1 in 9.26 | $250 | 335 | — |
Why holiday scratchers usually pay less
A holiday range is the most heavily promoted thing a state lottery sells. The tickets are bigger, the artwork is better, and they arrive at the one time of year when people who never buy a scratcher buy one as a gift. None of that changes the arithmetic. The prize pool is printed before the game ships, and the share of each dollar it returns is set at the same time. In District of Columbia right now the difference is small — 70.6% against 71.4% — so the festive games are neither a trap nor a bargain. The one thing a new holiday game does guarantee is that its top prizes are still unclaimed, which is not true of a game that has been on the shelf since spring.
If you are buying a scratcher as a gift, the useful question is not which game is festive but which is still worth handing over. The payout ranking answers that for every game in District of Columbia, and the top prizes still unclaimed list shows which games have their headline prize in play. Both are free and both are recomputed daily.
Last year's holiday scratchers — stopped selling, still claimable
These are out of the shops. If you were given one, or found one in a coat pocket, the claim window is what matters now.
- Snow Much Fun — $10, claim by February 16, 2027, 1 of 2 top prizes unclaimed
District of Columbia holiday scratchers: common questions
- How many District of Columbia holiday scratchers are on sale right now?
- 1 as of October 14, 2026, plus 1 that have stopped selling but can still be claimed.
- Are holiday scratchers a better bet than normal ones?
- They are ordinary — 70.6% median payout against 71.4% for the state as a whole. Buy them because you want a festive ticket, not because the odds are better.
- When do District of Columbia holiday scratchers go on sale?
- District of Columbia has released its holiday range in October and November: the games we hold launched between November 6, 2024 and November 5, 2025. This page lists the new range the day the District of Columbia Lottery publishes it, because we re-read the official prize data every day.
- Can I still claim a holiday scratcher from last year?
- 1 District of Columbia holiday scratchers have stopped selling and are still claimable — check each game's last claim date below before you throw a ticket away.
- Do unclaimed holiday prizes carry over?
- No. Every game is a fixed pool printed before it ships, and prizes that are never claimed are simply never paid. That is why a game late in its life can look generous on paper: the money is still in the pool, but so are the tickets.