For many people their only experience of gambling is the Lottery, apart from perhaps the annual flutter on the Grand National or the Derby. Lotteries are a major source of income for charities and other good causes and are now widespread throughout many parts of the world, and gambling on the lotteries is probably the biggest gambling activity in most of the countries where lotteries are legal. Several years ago the lottery operators also introduced us to scratch cards in an attempt to increase their turnover, and scratch card gambling is now the most popular form of lottery gambling in many countries, including Ireland. Scratch cards have many advantages over other forms of lottery gambling, not least of which is the instant knowledge of whether it is a winning card, and of course the ease of purchase of a scratch card is also significant. Not surprisingly therefore, the online casinos quickly recognised that lotteries, and scratch cards in particular would be a popular addition to the range of casino games they offer and almost all the major online casinos now have a variety of scratch cards on their site. Scratch card gambling online retains the instantaneous results element of the scratch cards purchased on the high street, but also offers the option to gamble for very low stakes, with most online gambling operators offering scratch cards for as little as 0.1 euros. For scratch card gambling fans with bigger budgets, most online casinos offer scratch cards with a wide range of purchase prices, and Party casino even have a scratch card which costs $500 to play, although it is difficult to imagine many online scratch card gambling enthusiasts choosing that option. If you enjoy gambling games with instant results, gambling on online scratch cards offers an interesting alternative to the slots and can even offer the opportunity for some light relief for the more serious online gambling fans who normally play casino games such as poker or roulette.