Free Scratch Card - History Of Scratch Cards

History Of Scratch Cards

Scratch cards are also called scratchcards, a scratch ticket, scratch game, scratcher or a scratch off. The National Lottery refers to them as a scratchcard and will be thus called in this article for their games. The free scratch card below is an example of an online scratchcard game.

Use your mouse to scratch off the coins on the free scratch card below. If you match three balls then you can claim points towards prizes by clicking on the claim your prize button which will appear where the play more games button is, registration if free.
This free to play scratch card has daily prizes such as cash, concert tickets, chocolates and champagne:

This free scratchcard can be played daily for free and each day there is a £50 prize.

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Traditionally scratchcards are made on card with a funny cartoon and have non see through panels which need to be rubbed off with a coin. The panels are usually round and form part of the cartoon. The entrant needs to find the hidden pictures and match a certain amount of them, quite often three similar symbols. The free scratch card below offers free points to win prizes and a purchased scratch card usually has a cash prize for the winner or other prizes such as cars, holidays or voucher. Entrants need to be aged over 18 years to comply with current UK gambling laws. Most scratch cards are instant win games.

The Inventor of the Scratch Card

In 1974 the first scratch card was invented by USA scientist John Koza and retail promotions specialist Daniel Bower. They worked together producing manual randomization techniques for the American company Scientific Games. The work was on behalf of the Massachusetts Lottery in America.

The US patent for scratch cards was awarded to Astro-Med, Inc. of West Warwick, Rhode Island in 1987.

Modern day scratch cards can form part of a game such as the National Lottery Monopoly game, connect 4 game and the su-dosh-ku a form of the popular Japanese game Sudoku. To demonstrate how many different scratch card games are available the Monopoly game was the 100th game to be launched by the National Lottery when it was introduced in October 2001.

Pirates of the Caribbean Scratchcards

To coincide with the new Orlando Bloom and Johnny Depp film Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End the National Lottery introduced a new pirate scratchcard in June 2007. These pirate scratchcards cost £2 each with prizes up to £88,888 - pieces of eight! The chances of winning these Pirates of the Caribbean scratchcards are said to be 1 in 4.66. There are two games and a bonus game and scratch symbols include an anchor, key, ship, skull, sword, compass, gem, treasure chest, silver or gold bar, golden coins, goblet and a ring.

Many charity organisations raise funds for their charities from printing and selling scratchcards. Much like the way that the National Lottery will give a percentage of the ticket price, usually a £1 cost, to charities. By doing their own print run fundraising organisations can set their own profit and loss amounts.

Scratch Cards From Magazines

Some magazines may include free scratch cards though entrants who win may have to telephone a premium rate phone number to claim their prize. Such calls may take some time to work through and winners may wish to weigh up the benefits of entering such scratch cards.

High Prize Value Scratch Cards

It is possible to buy more expensive scratch cards at a cost of £10 or £20. These scratch cards have higher cash prizes to reward winners.

The First Scratch Card

The 21 March 1995 saw the launch of the National Lottery scratchcards.

Six years later in June 2001 saw the launch of the scratchcard game called Millionaire with the first ever £1 million scratchcard game prize. This prize value was exceeded on the 15 October 2003 with the introduction of a £30 Million Spectacular scratchcard. The highest paid prize paid out by this National Lottery scratchcard was £2 million - not bad for an instant win game.

I have been unable to trace the historical origins of scratch cards. If you can help then please Contact Me.

Deal Or No Deal Scratch Card

In October 2007 the national lottery released a Deal Or No Deal scratch card based on the Channel 4 TV game show starring Noel Edmonds. The Deal Or No Deal scratch card nationallottery instant win game card has a top prize of up to £100,000. To play the Deal Or No Deal scratch card is much like the television programme where a national lottery scratchcard player has to scratch off 14 boxes out of the 22 red boxes on the card. Then the Deal Or No Deal scratch card player has to pick a lucky box then gets to choose which of the remaining DOND boxes to open. Each red box then reveals a cash amounts and the Deal Or No Deal scratch card player has to complete a sequence in the prize table to win and cash prize. Though be warned - do watch out for the banker's offers along the way! Each Deal Or No Deal scratch card costs £2. The overall odds of winning a prize in the Deal Or No Deal scratch card is 1 in 4.65. The new Deal Or No Deal scratch card can be purchased at most national lottery outlets such as supermarkets, newsagents, garages and local stores or you can play the Deal Or No Deal scratch card online at the official national lottery website of www.national-lottery.co.uk

Christmas Scratch Cards

In November 2007 the NationalLottery introduced new Christmas Scratch Cards such as the Christmas Presents Scratch card where you have to roll the dice or scratch the panel of guide Father Christmas round the snow covered village with shooting stars in the clear winter night. This can be played online where there is some fun Christmas music effects. As you guide Santa around the circular village Santa Claus can stop outside a house and you can see him pop down the chimney to deliver a Christmas present and collects presents left for him by the families and children. To the right of the Christmas scratch card is a panel of Christmas presents and Christmas symbols like an Xmas stocking, mince pie, Christmas pudding, Christmas cracker, snowman, Christmas tree, robin bird, a carrot for Rudolph the reindeer and Christmas bells. If you complete a row of Christmas presents in this Christmas scratch card you will win the cash prize on that row. These cash prizes range from £2, £20, £100, £500, £1000, £10,000 and an incredible £70,000 - handy for Christmas presents!

These Christmas scratch cards include mini games. For example if you land on a gold star you can play a minigame during Christmas Presents scratch card where you have to click on snowglobes to reveal cash prize values. Match all three on each snowglobe to win a cash prize. Christmas presents scratch cards cost £2 each and can be played for free at the National Lottery website at national-lottery.co.uk though no cash prizes will be awarded for playing free games. The odds of winning the Christmas presents scratch card is 1 in 2.84 at the time of writing this borntoloaf.co.uk review.

For more information or to buy the Christmas scratch cards visit the online shop at national-lottery.co.uk

Other Christmas Scratch cards from the National Lottery includes Winter Winner which has an overall odds of winning of 1 in 4.84. Each winter winner scratch card costs £2 and the top prize is £60,000. Winter winner has two games. The first involves rubbing out the shooting star and Christmas tree symbols to reveal symbols such as earmuffs, mug, skating boots, jacket, gloves, scarf, socks or a skier. If two symbols match the Winter Winner scratch card player can win cash prizes such as £16, £24 or £2400.

The second scratchcard game for the Christmas scratch card needs the player needing to match 2 symbols in one row in order to win a prize. Using a snow shovel the scratch card player needs to rub out the scratch card panels off the snowman to reveal scratch card symbols such as a snowman, snow flake or a red woolly hat to win cash prizes such as £2, £3, £6, £10, £40 or £400. A three in a row diagonal match nets the Winter Winner scratch card winner the jackpot prize of £60,000.

The biggest cash prize Christmas scratch card from the National Lottery though is £100,000 Christmas. No prizes for guessing how much can be won in these Christmas scratch cards! Revealing three matching cash prizes from the flashing symbols of holly with berries and golden stars wins the scratchcard player £100,000 or other prizes such as £5000, £150, £25, £16, £12, £7, £2, £1. This Christmas scratch card has some delightful Christmas music. Scratchcard players who reveal a face of a snowman will win a cash prize of £25. Look out for Santa being pulled in his sleigh by Rudolph the red nosed reindeer.

Golden Balls Scratch Card

A new Golden Balls Scratch Card based on the ITV game show with Jasper Carrott was launched in February 2008 by Gala Bingo. Golden Balls scratch card can be played at galabingo.com where each Golden Ball scratch card costs just 10pence and there are prizes up to 1000 times the original stake to be won. Winners need to scratch three matching symbols on the Golden Balls scratch card. Visit www.galabingo.com for more information or to play Golden Balls Scratch Cards. There is a free £10 offer when you spend just £5.