Best $5 California
Scratch-Offs by EV/Dollar

Scratch IQ ranks every active $5 California scratch-off by EV/Dollar, the statistical return per $1 spent given the prizes still left in circulation. The game at the top of this list has the highest current EV/Dollar at the $5 price point.

Every day. Scratch IQ collects California Lottery remaining-prize data once daily and recomputes EV/Dollar for every active game. The "as of" date at the top of the page is the most recent scrape.

Value depends on which tickets you compare and which day you compare them on. Lower-priced tickets in California usually have lower top prizes and lower expected absolute payouts, while higher-priced tickets typically have larger jackpots and a wider EV range. The state-rankings hub for California shows the full ranking across every price point so you can compare side by side.

Public data published by the California Lottery on calottery.com. The lottery posts each game's overall odds, prize tiers, total prizes printed, and prizes remaining. Scratch IQ collects those numbers daily and applies the same EV formula to every state it covers. The methodology page documents the formula in detail.