National Lottery player spends £340 on Scratchcards and winnings floor people

Sometimes people fancy conducting experiments, but doing so with money can be a dodgy game. That's precisely what one National Lottery punter discovered when they splashed out £340 on Scratchcards, leaving them rather taken aback by their winnings.

The tale was recently shared on Reddit, where a social media user posted: "Customer had €400 (£343.58) worth of €20 (£17.18) Scratchcards. Guess how much they won?" Naturally, people were quick to have a punt at guessing, fascinated by how much dosh they could potentially pocket.

The player, thought to have had a flutter in Ireland, took their chances to see what would unfold. Having a guess at what they'd scoop, one person responded: "I'm going to go ahead and guess 180."

Another piped up with: "My son did his math continuous assessment on the returns of winning the Lotto (from three numbers to six numbers) vs saving the same amount of money spent.

"Turned out s*** because the odds of winning the Lotto was so low, he couldn't get a decent graph out of it for a comparison, nice lesson learnt early though."

A third chimed in with: "Not surprised. I'm quitting the things. There's actually videos on Youtube of guys scratching 100s of cards and getting a return of 20% of their outlay."

Meanwhile, a fourth also remarked: "Got one in a birthday card a while back and won €4. Was in the Post Office to cash it and the woman behind the counter remarked 'we never see any winners on these things'."

After forking out hundreds on Scratchcards, the individual was left in the red. The social media user lamented: "They got €180 out of them. Crazy."

This unfortunate outcome meant they were down by €220, making it a less than lucrative endeavour. It prompted others to share their experiences and question whether anyone actually wins big with Scratchcards.

Another person commented: "When I looked at the odds of winning these, I never bought one again."

Someone else joined the conversation with a more positive tale: "My brother won €30k in one he got for his birthday. Couldn't believe it."

An additional comment came from someone who observed: "I find that you're more likely to win something on the cheaper Scratchcards than on the more expensive ones. There was a time where I got €200 on a €2 Scratchcard and €150 on another (seriously). Up €346 on those two Scratchcards. This person's down €220."

Statistics suggest that the chances of winning on a £5 Scratchcard game are roughly one in four, which includes cards that simply allow you to break even by winning £5.

The likelihood of winning varies across different games, and players can usually find the specific odds printed on the back of each card.

As per the National Lottery website, there is now a cap on buying Scratchcards – customers can only purchase up to 10 in a single transaction. This restriction applies across all shops offering The National Lottery games.

If you're worried about how gambling makes you or someone else feel, visit GambleAware for help and support.