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

For the 30-day window ending May 28, 2026, the highest-paying 10-mile zone in New York is Watkins Glen (zip 14891, Schuyler County) at 72.7% 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 61%.

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 May 30, 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 (Apr 29 – May 28, 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

Watkins Glen, NY (zip 14891)

Schuyler County · 7 zip codes within 10 miles

72.7%

Retailer Payout

$0.30M

30-Day Sales

$0.22M

Paid in-store

1.19×

vs. NY Avg

That's 11.4 percentage points above New York's statewide retailer-redemption rate of 61.3%. Across the entire state, NY retailers settled $380M in instant-game sales over this 30-day window and paid $233M back at the counter, spread across 1,296 zip codes.

Top 25 Zones Statewide (10-Mile Radius)

#	Payout	City	County	Zip	30-Day Sales	Zips
1	72.7%	Watkins Glen	Schuyler	14891	$0.30M	7
2	71.9%	Champlain	Clinton	12919	$0.26M	4
3	70.7%	Crown Point	Essex	12928	$0.34M	5
4	69.6%	Boonville	Oneida	13309	$0.25M	6
5	69.0%	Bradford	Steuben	14815	$0.32M	6
6	68.9%	Elba	Genesee	14058	$0.86M	5
7	68.7%	Burdett	Schuyler	14818	$0.38M	7
8	68.7%	Sandy Creek	Oswego	13145	$0.27M	3
9	68.5%	Chazy	Clinton	12921	$0.33M	5
10	68.5%	Batavia	Genesee	14020	$0.89M	6
11	68.4%	Odessa	Schuyler	14869	$0.35M	7
12	68.4%	Pulaski	Oswego	13142	$0.48M	7
13	68.3%	Branchport	Yates	14418	$0.31M	4
14	68.1%	Canandaigua	Ontario	14424	$1.12M	8
15	67.9%	Palmyra	Wayne	14522	$1.25M	9
16	67.6%	Richland	Oswego	13144	$0.29M	5
17	67.5%	Mexico	Oswego	13114	$0.42M	5
18	67.5%	Blossvale	Oneida	13308	$0.26M	4
19	67.3%	North Collins	Erie	14111	$0.65M	8
20	67.1%	Oakfield	Genesee	14125	$0.94M	6
21	67.0%	Montour Falls	Schuyler	14865	$0.36M	7
22	66.8%	Derby	Erie	14047	$1.37M	7
23	66.8%	East Hampton	Suffolk	11937	$0.51M	5
24	66.7%	Byron	Genesee	14422	$1.20M	6
25	66.6%	Burlingham	Sullivan	12722	$1.42M	10

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
Long Island (Nassau / Suffolk)	61.7%	$50.5M	2
Westchester / Rockland	61.7%	$19.3M	2
New York City (Manhattan / Brooklyn / Queens / Bronx)	61.6%	$396.0M	4
Buffalo Metro	61.2%	$17.5M	2
Syracuse Metro	60.7%	$8.0M	1
Albany / Capital Region	59.0%	$9.2M	1
Rochester Metro	59.0%	$23.7M	2

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	50.2%	Greenwich	Washington	12834	$0.51M
2	51.8%	Brantingham	Lewis	13312	$0.46M
3	52.7%	Varysburg	Wyoming	14167	$0.34M
4	52.9%	Shushan	Washington	12873	$0.40M
5	52.9%	Cambridge	Washington	12816	$0.40M
6	53.6%	Barker	Niagara	14012	$0.27M
7	53.8%	Dover Plains	Dutchess	12522	$0.56M
8	53.9%	Lowville	Lewis	13367	$0.40M
9	53.9%	Croghan	Lewis	13327	$0.40M
10	54.2%	Perry	Wyoming	14530	$0.39M

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 May 28, 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.