Ohio Holiday Scratch-Offs: What to Buy and What to Skip (October 2026)
1 Ohio holiday scratch-offs are on sale as of October 14, 2026. The best of them by current payout is Holiday Cash ($1) at 75.0%, 1 in 3.99 for any prize. Unusually, they are the better buy this year: a median payout of 75.0% against 73.6% across all 69 games on sale.
Ohio holiday scratch-offs on sale, best payout first
- 1 $1
Holiday Cash
#110675.0% payout now- EV / ticket
- $0.75
- Any prize
- 1 in 3.99
- Beats price
- 1 in 6.64
- Top prizes
- 742 of 742
Best payout New
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. Holiday Cash New | $1 | 75.0% | $0.75 | 1 in 3.99 | 1 in 3.99 | 1 in 6.64 | $500 | 742 | — |
Why holiday scratch-offs 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. Ohio is the exception this year: its holiday games return a median 75.0% against 73.6% for the state as a whole. 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 Ohio, and the top prizes still unclaimed list shows which games have their headline prize in play. Both are free and both are recomputed daily.
Ohio holiday scratch-offs: common questions
- How many Ohio holiday scratch-offs are on sale right now?
- 1 as of October 14, 2026.
- Are holiday scratch-offs a better bet than normal ones?
- This year, yes: 75.0% median payout against 73.6% for the state as a whole. That is unusual and it will not hold once prizes are claimed.
- When do Ohio holiday scratch-offs go on sale?
- Ohio has released its holiday range in October and November: the games we hold launched between October 13, 2026 and October 13, 2026. This page lists the new range the day the Ohio Lottery publishes it, because we re-read the official prize data every day.
- Can I still claim a holiday scratch-off from last year?
- Only while the game is inside its claim window. A game stops selling months before claims close, so check the last claim date on the game's own page.
- 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.