Scratch Cards

The original scratch cards have been around longer than many people think, in actual fact since 1974 which is long before the lottery which now makes scratch card gambling popular; it was however not until 1987 that first instant win scratch lottery ticket was introduced. The traditional scratch cards require the player to match a number of symbols (usually three) and the symbols are often cash amounts or other symbols such as cards where you can play blackjack or poker but they can also be themed symbols such as during the FIFA World Cup. The idea being that if you can match three symbols you win instant cash prizes of various values and this instant win is the attraction of gambling on scratch cards. The purchase of scratch cards is often done at the same time as buying tickets for the local lottery but scratch cards can also be found in any good online gambling bookmaker although they differ from the cardboard versions found in the shops.

At Ladbrokes for example there is a choice of two scratch cards which are called the VIZ scratch card and the Superstreak Bar X. The first one has, as you might expect, characters from the VIZ comic books whereas Superstreak uses a noughts and crosses theme but both have 9 areas of card to be revealed and you win if you can match three symbols. Wins can be from 1 times your stake to 200 times your stake and if you are lucky enough to reveal three jackpot symbols you can win up to 500 times your stake. The jackpot symbols on Superstreak are fruit machines whist on VIZ they are Jonny Fartpants which entitles you to play the “wheel of fartune”. Stakes can be as small as €0.10 per game and to save time you can use the “reveal all” button which will scratch all the areas off at the same time and you can even instruct the game to play up to 50 successive games.

Paddy Power have no less than 7 different options of scratch card gambling featuring several popular TV programs such as Blankety Blank, Family Fortunes, Blockbusters and the X Factor as well as themed cards for Golf, Horse Racing and football. Apart from the symbols used, Blankety Blank, Family Fortunes and Blockbusters are very similar having 9 areas to be uncovered and 9 different symbols with winning odds ranging from even money to 500 times your stake. Other gambling scratch cards have a different number of symbols and different odds, for example Caddy which obviously is the golf themed game has only 6 different symbols giving in theory a greater chance of winning but the odds are a maximum of 250 times your stake. The X-factor scratch cards also have 6 symbols but the maximum win is 750 times your stake whilst Scratch the Derby, the horse racing themed game using symbols such as horseshoes and silver cup pays out anything from 2 times your stake to 1000 times your stake for a winning line. This really is a good selection of scratch cards and of course you can adjust your stake from small to large according to your mood.

Party gaming under the Party Casino banner offers four different scratch cards for your gambling needs and if you are a high stakes player then Party Casino scratch cards are for you as with their Hollywood Stars cards you can bet up to $500 on a single card. This scratch card has only six areas to be revealed and 8 different symbols and pays out from 1 times your stake up to 100 times your stake which could give you a massive $50,000. Party Casino motor racing themed scratch card is called rather amusingly “Formula Won” and again for high stakes if you want it up to $250. This card is a more conventional one with 9 symbols and 9 reveal areas as is the magic themed “Hat Trick” featuring magic symbols including of course the rabbits. Hat Trick has a maximum stake of $25 per card but the top winning combination pays out at a huge 2000:1 which still wins $50,000. On a slightly different scratch card is “Love Lines” which features a three by three grid and you have to reveal three heart symbols in a row either horizontally, vertically or diagonally. Only the heart symbols provide a winning line but the payout is determined by another heart with a multiplier in it. This heart symbol will produce a multiplying number driven by a Random Number Generator so that your win is whatever your initial stake was multiplied by the multiplier. This is an interesting twist on the normal game and your maximum stake can be up to $50 per card.

Bookmaker 888 goes in for scratch card gambling in a big way as it has no less than 25 different options to offer you so that it would be impossible for us to describe them all but along more traditional lines is the “Temple of Loot” which has 9 reveal spaces and 7 symbols with a maximum payout of 3000 times your stake. Unconventional but interesting is “Risk it Progressive”; in this game you start by selecting a number of cards from Ace to King and then you select one card from the three shown face down and try to make a match with one of the cards that you previously selected. The more cards you select initially the better your chances of winning but of course the odds paid reduce considerably. You can select up to 12 cards but your odds are only 1.07:1 whereas by selecting only one card your odds are 11:8 to one. The unique feature of this game is that it is progressive which means that if you have a winner you can gamble that full amount. For example if you selected 6 cards your odds are 2.05:1 and if you start playing for €2 a match will result in a win of €4,10 which if you then gamble again and win again gives you €8.41 and so on so successive wins can really mount up into a large win. Online scratch cards are a long way from the cardboard versions that we know so take a look around at the various bookmakers and you can usually play free scratch cards before risking your money but scratch cards can be a lot of fun.