A daily lottery player who once won £8,500 on a scratch card has revealed his three key strategies.
The 33-year-old, who did not want to give his name, has won thousands of dollars from scratch-off lottery tickets since first getting hooked in 2018.
He is so addicted he now has his own YouTube channel, and regularly uploads videos to his 21,900 subscribers of himself scratching off lottery tickets.
The man, from Orlando, Florida, claims his YouTube channel, Scratch Life is now "self-sufficient", although he spent the first two years "putting money into it" after his ex-girlfriend got him hooked on buying the tickets.
He told The Sun : “This is how you can actually get to play the lottery for free on YouTube, and get advertisements to pay for your lottery tickets.”
The man, who works as a children’s swimming instructor, says he only spends what he can afford to lose, and believes that he has lost around $10,000 since 2018.
However, he has had some big wins along the way, including a $10,000 jackpot after finding a 500x symbol on a $20 prize amount.
"Holy s*** we did it," Scratch Life said in a video posted on YouTube after realising he had just won $10,000. "We f****** did it."
After jumping in his swimming pool in celebration, the lottery player said: "Guys we did it. Guys I just scored the biggest symbol on the biggest ticket."
He also says he won $5,000 in 2019, and claims there have been multiple other times where he has won a “few thousand dollars”.
According to Scratch Life, he says one of his key strategies is to regularly look on his state lottery's website. This enables him to check each game to see how many prizes remain and which ones are still available.
“You can easily do the math on what one and what prizes are left out there and on which tickets,” Scratch Life said.
“People are not aware they're buying tickets where you literally cannot win.”
Another strategy Scratch Life suggests is to buy the same type of tickets, rather than multiple ones of different games.
“If you buy let's say four tickets, you're guaranteed to find a winner pretty much,” the lottery player said.
He added: “The most amount of money you put on [one game], the better your chance is to win something big."
His third strategy is to look around the store where he buys his lottery tickets to see if there are any losing scratch cards.
“If you see three tickets on the counter and you ask [the clerk] for the same ticket, most likely you're going to win if someone already lost for you," he said.
Scratch Life also suggested speaking to those who work inside the store and asking them who won and lost on particular tickets.
But the lottery player admitted that players should “never expect to win”.
“It's gambling,” he said.
“You have to be okay with losing the money you're going to put on the table.”
