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

For the 30-day window ending Sep 3, 2026, the highest-paying 10-mile zone in New York is Baldwinsville (zip 13027, Onondaga County) at 72.9% 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 63%.

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 September 5, 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 (Aug 5 – Sep 3, 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

Baldwinsville, NY (zip 13027)

Onondaga County · 10 zip codes within 10 miles

72.9%

Retailer Payout

$3.21M

30-Day Sales

$2.34M

Paid in-store

1.16×

vs. NY Avg

That's 9.9 percentage points above New York's statewide retailer-redemption rate of 62.9%. Across the entire state, NY retailers settled $350M in instant-game sales over this 30-day window and paid $220M 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	72.9%	Baldwinsville	Onondaga	13027	$3.21M	10
2	71.9%	Brewerton	Onondaga	13029	$3.31M	13
3	71.9%	Mount Morris	Livingston	14510	$0.44M	5
4	71.0%	Leicester	Livingston	14481	$0.43M	5
5	70.9%	Rensselaer Falls	St. Lawrence	13680	$0.29M	3
6	70.3%	Cooperstown	Otsego	13326	$0.25M	7
7	69.7%	Hinsdale	Cattaraugus	14743	$0.78M	5
8	69.5%	Conesus	Livingston	14435	$0.36M	6
9	69.3%	Central Valley	Orange	10917	$1.58M	13
10	69.3%	Irving	Chautauqua	14081	$0.57M	6
11	69.1%	Portville	Cattaraugus	14770	$0.62M	3
12	68.9%	Angola	Erie	14006	$0.53M	7
13	68.8%	Palmyra	Wayne	14522	$1.17M	9
14	68.6%	Waverly	Tioga	14892	$0.30M	3
15	68.4%	Elba	Genesee	14058	$0.82M	5
16	68.4%	Canton	St. Lawrence	13617	$0.26M	2
17	68.2%	Batavia	Genesee	14020	$0.84M	6
18	68.2%	Minoa	Onondaga	13116	$5.67M	22
19	68.1%	Camillus	Onondaga	13031	$6.42M	23
20	68.1%	Cicero	Onondaga	13039	$5.48M	22
21	68.1%	Alexander	Genesee	14005	$0.94M	6
22	68.0%	Allegany	Cattaraugus	14706	$0.65M	4
23	68.0%	Olean	Cattaraugus	14760	$0.65M	4
24	67.9%	Silver Creek	Chautauqua	14136	$0.64M	5
25	67.8%	Liverpool	Onondaga	13090	$6.44M	21

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
Syracuse Metro	67.2%	$7.4M	1
Westchester / Rockland	64.0%	$17.3M	2
New York City (Manhattan / Brooklyn / Queens / Bronx)	63.4%	$353.2M	4
Buffalo Metro	63.3%	$16.8M	2
Long Island (Nassau / Suffolk)	63.2%	$45.4M	2
Rochester Metro	62.8%	$20.8M	2
Albany / Capital Region	60.7%	$8.6M	1

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	48.8%	Ray Brook	Essex	12977	$0.45M
2	48.9%	Saranac Lake	Franklin	12983	$0.46M
3	49.1%	Canaan	Columbia	12029	$0.31M
4	49.4%	Lake Placid	Essex	12946	$0.47M
5	49.5%	Wilmington	Essex	12997	$0.29M
6	49.9%	Shushan	Washington	12873	$0.40M
7	49.9%	Cambridge	Washington	12816	$0.40M
8	51.4%	East Nassau	Rensselaer	12062	$0.48M
9	51.5%	Westerlo	Albany	12193	$0.37M
10	51.6%	Westfield	Chautauqua	14787	$0.33M

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 Sep 3, 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.