Which NY zip code zone has the highest scratch-off payout rate?

For the 30-day window ending Jul 16, 2026, the highest-paying 10-mile zone in New York is Westerlo (zip 12193, Albany County) at 74.7% retailer redemption.

What does "retailer redemption rate" mean?

It is the share of every dollar of instant-ticket sales that retailers in a given area paid back out as winnings. NY retailers can redeem prizes under $600 in-store; larger prizes are claimed at NY Lottery offices and are not included in this number, so the true total payout is higher.

Why is upstate NY higher than NYC?

Two structural reasons. First, smaller upstate stores sell more lower-priced ticket families that pay out closer to the printed payout rate (75-80%) versus NYC's mix of higher-priced and lottery-corner volume. Second, upstate winners are more likely to take a small prize back to the same store rather than carry it to a Lottery office. NYC's average sits near 62%.

How often is this list updated?

Every 7 days. We re-pull the official NY Open Data feed, recompute every zip code's 10-mile radius rollup, and republish.

The Highest-Paying Zip Code Zones in New York (Past 30 Days)

Data Analysis Payout Rates Updated July 18, 2026 · Refreshed every 7 days

Where in New York do scratch-off players actually win the most? Not anecdotally — measurably. We pulled every retailer's daily settlement from the official NY Open Data feed for the past 30 days (Jun 17 – Jul 16, 2026), grouped sales and prizes paid by zip code, then computed a 10-mile radius rollup for every zip in the state.

The result is a clean ranking of New York's highest-paying lottery zones, based on real money in versus real money out — not gut feel.

How "Retailer Redemption Rate" works

Each row aggregates instant-ticket sales (ig_settles) and prizes paid in-store (ig_paid) reported by the NY Lottery itself. Retailers can pay out prizes under $600; bigger jackpots are claimed at Lottery offices and are not in this number — so the true full payout in every zone is higher than what's shown.

The #1 Zone in New York

Westerlo, NY (zip 12193)

Albany County · 7 zip codes within 10 miles

74.7%

Retailer Payout

$0.27M

30-Day Sales

$0.20M

Paid in-store

1.19×

vs. NY Avg

That's 12.2 percentage points above New York's statewide retailer-redemption rate of 62.5%. Across the entire state, NY retailers settled $342M in instant-game sales over this 30-day window and paid $214M back at the counter, spread across 1,300 zip codes.

Top 25 Zones Statewide (10-Mile Radius)

#	Payout	City	County	Zip	30-Day Sales	Zips
1	74.7%	Westerlo	Albany	12193	$0.27M	7
2	72.7%	Berne	Albany	12023	$0.31M	7
3	71.7%	Elba	Genesee	14058	$0.78M	5
4	71.7%	Keeseville	Essex	12944	$0.26M	3
5	71.1%	Batavia	Genesee	14020	$0.80M	6
6	70.6%	Mount Upton	Chenango	13809	$0.56M	8
7	70.4%	Avoca	Steuben	14809	$0.38M	3
8	70.3%	Byron	Genesee	14422	$1.05M	6
9	70.3%	Alexander	Genesee	14005	$0.90M	6
10	70.3%	Oakfield	Genesee	14125	$0.85M	6
11	70.1%	Canandaigua	Ontario	14424	$1.04M	8
12	69.9%	Chatham	Columbia	12037	$0.40M	9
13	69.7%	Depauville	Jefferson	13632	$0.26M	5
14	69.6%	Cazenovia	Madison	13035	$0.40M	5
15	69.5%	Chaumont	Jefferson	13622	$0.30M	6
16	69.5%	Savona	Steuben	14879	$0.45M	5
17	69.3%	Gorham	Ontario	14461	$0.96M	4
18	69.2%	Hammondsport	Steuben	14840	$0.41M	5
19	68.9%	Canastota	Madison	13032	$0.85M	7
20	68.8%	Cairo	Greene	12413	$0.69M	9
21	68.8%	New Paltz	Ulster	12561	$1.02M	10
22	68.6%	Bath	Steuben	14810	$0.46M	5
23	68.4%	Niverville	Columbia	12130	$0.94M	11
24	68.4%	West Coxsackie	Greene	12192	$0.78M	10
25	68.3%	Carthage	Jefferson	13619	$0.34M	4

A few patterns jump out:

Western and upstate New York dominate. Smaller-town stores in this corridor pay out closer to the printed game payout rates because their sales mix is heavier on $1–$5 tickets that have higher in-store redemption.
Top zones run well above the statewide average. That isn't randomness — it's the structural difference between local-counter redemption and big-city ticket mix.

How the Big Metros Compare

Metro	Avg Payout	30-Day Sales	Zones Sampled
Westchester / Rockland	63.3%	$17.3M	2
Rochester Metro	63.1%	$20.6M	2
Albany / Capital Region	63.0%	$8.1M	1
Buffalo Metro	62.7%	$15.9M	2
Syracuse Metro	62.3%	$7.1M	1
Long Island (Nassau / Suffolk)	62.3%	$45.5M	2
New York City (Manhattan / Brooklyn / Queens / Bronx)	61.0%	$353.7M	4

The Buffalo metro consistently leads the major-city group, anchored by the Western NY zones above. NYC and Long Island land near the statewide median — high volume, high ticket prices, more prizes that get walked into a Lottery office instead of the corner store.

The 10 Lowest-Payout Zones

For balance, here are the 10 zones in the bottom of the ranking. Low retailer-redemption rate doesn't mean "unlucky" — it usually means the area sells more high-tier tickets where the big jackpots get claimed at offices, not the counter.

#	Payout	City	County	Zip	30-Day Sales
1	48.6%	Hemlock	Livingston	14466	$0.25M
2	51.9%	Canaseraga	Allegany	14822	$0.34M
3	53.0%	Sherburne	Chenango	13460	$0.26M
4	53.0%	West Bloomfield	Ontario	14585	$0.63M
5	54.3%	Lima	Livingston	14485	$0.52M
6	55.1%	Wayland	Steuben	14572	$0.40M
7	55.1%	Hoosick Falls	Rensselaer	12090	$0.29M
8	55.1%	Olivebridge	Ulster	12461	$0.34M
9	55.4%	Johnsonville	Rensselaer	12094	$0.40M
10	55.4%	Preble	Cortland	13141	$0.29M

The honest read: payout rate maps roughly inverse to ticket-price mix and population density. Want the highest counter redemption? Drive west. Want the highest per-ticket EV? That's a different question — see our price-tier analysis.

What This Means for Players

It's about volume + ticket mix, not "luck." Zones that sell millions of $1–$5 tickets generate massive small-prize churn at the counter.
The "lucky 7-Eleven" effect is local. The leaderboard is a 10-mile radius — store-level luck washes out at this scale. If you live in or near one of the top zones, your nearest retailer is likely benefitting from the same structural factors.
Combine this with our store-level Smart Score to find the highest-scoring single retailer inside one of these high-payout zones — that's the math-backed sweet spot.

Find the top stores inside any of these zones

Our Store Finder scores 12,800+ NY retailers daily on 9 weighted factors.

Open Store Finder →

Methodology

Source: NY Open Data — Lottery Instant Game Settlements (xyvi-fbb9).
Window: 30 days ending Jul 16, 2026.
Aggregation: Sales (ig_settles) and in-store paid prizes (ig_paid) summed by zip, then re-aggregated within a 10-mile radius using zip-centroid haversine distance.
Filter: Zones with under $250,000 in 30-day sales or fewer than 2 zips in radius are excluded as too thin to rank.
Cadence: Refreshed automatically every 7 days.

Data sourced from data.ny.gov. For entertainment and informational purposes only. Please play responsibly.

Alex P.

Lead Data Analyst at ScratchOffsNY

Alex builds the Smart Score model and analyzes scratch-off data daily using official NY Lottery prize reports and open data APIs. All rankings are based on math, not gut feeling. Learn about our methodology.