How often do you win scratch tickets?

Take your $40 and consider yourself very lucky.

The average return on most scratch tickets is around 50% -- so if you 'invest' in more tickets, odds are you'll end up with around $20 at the end of it.

Take your winnings and enjoy them on something you like doing or put them in a savings account or take someone out to dinner.

Do not buy more lottery tickets. You got lucky. You will not get that lucky anytime soon.

take the $40 and run

States publish the odds on all of their lottery games.

Treat scratch off tickets as a game (can you afford to lose?), not as a good gambling opportunity.

Of course not.

For every dollar you spend, the AVERAGE amount you should expect back is about 50 cents. So if you "invest" $40 into scratch tickets, the expectation should be to only "win" back $20. You might get a little more. You might get a little less. The AVERAGE will be $20 back.

At a 50% payback rate, no other standard form of gambling on the planet comes even close to being as bad a bet as the lottery. The lottery is a TAX on the poor and on the ignorant.

I would do one of two things: 1- take the $40 and enjoy it or 2- take most of the money, say $30 of the $40 and enjoy it and buy scratchers or lotto tickets with the other $10, you probably won't win but even if you don't you are still $30 ahead.