To a casual observer, there is very little strategy in playing instant games. That’s the kind of thinking, though, that keeps the dedicated player focused on playing games they have some reasonable mathetmatical chance of winning. Casual players eat through loads of series with little or no major prizes left and tend to leave a few unpopular games ripe for the picking. Consider a game like Flamingo Double Bingo, launched in April, that still has eight prizes of $20,000 left, and almost 400 unclaimed $500 wins sitting on the table. My guess is that the gambling populous was a little overexhausted with bingo games, and let this one slip by. A smart player, though, is going to pass on any number of new cards launched in the last month or two and find a much better value in grabbing Flamingo Double Bingo.

So how exactly does one go about playing to win? Let’s be realistic, it’s still a game of odds and not skill. What we can do, however, is make sure the odds are maximized against how much we are willing to spend and what prizes are available.When you’re got some dough and are ready to go out and buy some, take a few minutes and do some research. Visit the NJ Lottery Unclaimed Instant Prizes list and carefully review it. Jot down or take a mental note of some of the games that have the most remaining top prizes. We’ve taken the currently list and X’d out games we’d pass on and circled the games we’d play. Take a game like ‘7th Inning Stretch’; it’s got a single $50,000 prize left and all of 22 prizes of $1,000 left. Out of 4.8M tickets, that’s not a terrific opportunity. On the flip side, although the 6M-card Tic Tac Toe has more than 20% more tickets to burn through, there are nearly 1,000 prizes left of above $500. It’s not an exact science, but you can usually clearly find a game or two that has plenty to win across the board.

Once you’ve found a few games you like, it’s time to set a budget and figure out what you’re going to buy. In our example above, if you wanted to play $10, you’ve got a bunch of choices. What we recommend doing, though, is NOT buying one of each card so you can play a lot of different games. The odds are stated on the NJ Lottery site, and you need to consider them carefully. Let’s figure out the best way to work our $10 play.

$2 Big Money Spectacular: Better than 1 in 5 Wins a Prize
$2 Bingo Zone: Better than 1 in 4 Wins a Prize
$3 Tic-Tac Toe: Better than 1 in 4 Wins a Prize
$3 Crossword: Better than 1 in 5 Wins a Prize
$3 Win for Life: Better than 1 in 6 Wins a Prize

Some simple math: We could only buy a maximum of (3) $3 cards, while we could grab (5) $2 cards. Since the odds of winning on the $3 tickets are, at best, 1 in 4, there’s a 25% chance we’d win nothing at all. Moving over to the $2 cards, Bingo Zone has better odds than Big Money Spectacular. Buy spending the $10 entirely on (5) Bingo Zone cards, you’d mathetmatically guarantee yourself at least one winner and additionally give yourself a 25% chance to win on a second card. Notice how, by choosing the right cards, you go from a 25% chance to winning nothing at all to a 25% chance of winning two. Keep in mind that the odds are only averages, so it’s completely possible you could lose on 5 cards where the odds are 1 in 4. Someone, somewhere, might have won two in a row and just evened out the average. From experience, though, you should consistently win near the averages.

Keep in mind, though, that the odds are still against you. It’s still a gamble. By playing with a little bit of smarts, however, you can ensure you’re gambling with a shot to win something, and not just pouring money into a dead game.

Let’s summarize:

- Find tickets that have the most prizes you actually want. Let’s face it, it’s nice to win $10, but we’re all here looking to hit that $30,000.

- Check out the odds and weigh them against how much money you want to spend. Determine a plan of purchase before you’re in the store.

- Be reasonable with your expectations. It’s a lottery, after all.

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