These Texas Scratch Offs Have The Best Odds to Win Big in January

A new month is here and that means it's time to crunch some more numbers for the Texas Lottery scratch-off games.

The methodology I use takes into consideration the percentage of lower-tier payouts that have been won as compared to the percentage of top payouts that have been won.

A simplistic analogy would be...there are 1,000,000 bass in a lake, 10 of which weigh over 10 pounds. If 500,000 of the smaller bass have been caught 5 months later, but only 2 of the 10-pounders have been caught, your chances of catching a monster bass are a little better than they were 5 months ago.

Granted, the chances of winning the big prizes are still very small, but every month big winners are claiming cash. For example, there were two big winners in East Texas over the holidays, each winning $250,000.

Let's start with the $5 scratch-offs

Bingo X 20 ($5)

This game has been out since September. Approximately 25-27% of the lower-tier prizes have been claimed. There are a total of 8 prizes of $100,000 with this game, only one of which has been claimed. That's 12.5% of the top payouts won so far.

Money Multiplier ($5)

About 45-50% of the cash prizes have been won in this game. Only 16.7% of the top payouts ($100,000) have been claimed. There are still 5 - $100,000 prizes waiting to be won.

Hit $100,000 ($5)

There are only 2 out of 6 big prizes ($100,000) left to be claimed in this game. Normally, I wouldn't suggest a game with just 2 prizes left (67% have been won). But, around 85-92% of the lower tier prizes have been won.

With the number of overall tickets dwindling down and since this game is closing soon, I'd take a couple of cracks at buying some tickets.

$200,000 Winnings ($5)

1 of 6 (17%) of the top prizes of $100,000 have been won. 45-50% of the secondary prizes have been claimed.

$100,000 Jackpot ($5)

2 of 6 (33%) of the top prizes of $100,000 have been won. 50-60% of the secondary prizes have been claimed.

$500,000 Winnings ($10)

The top prize for this game is half a million bucks! So far, only 1 of 6 has been claimed (17%), while 40-50% of all the other prizes have been won.

Jackpot Millions ($20)

There are four $1,000,000 top prizes with this game. One of those has been cashed in (25%), while over 50% of the game's other prizes have been claimed.

I don't like that there are only two remaining $1 million tickets left, but I'd spend $20 for a shot.

Millions Club ($50)

I know, it's getting pricey for just a single scratch-off ticket. $20 is usually my max, and that's every great once in a while. But, out of all the $50 games, this ticket has the best odds to win big.

Around 20-25% of the secondary prizes have been claimed, but NONE of the 10 top $1 million prizes have been won.

$5,000,000 Ultimate ($50)

Another $50 ticket, another game with NO top winners as of yet. There are four $5 million prizes unclaimed. Meanwhile, 45-50% of the secondary cash prizes have been won.

Once again, given the data on the Texas Lottery website, the odds tip ever so slightly in your favor with the game above. However, the actual odds of winning the big prizes for each of these games are still very slim.