Scratch Cards – History
Do you like instant lottery? If so, you will like scratch cards for sure, and you must know that they are one of the forms of instant lottery. Although the idea of scratching cards is somehow recent, the origins of lottery can be traced back in ancient history, as far as the times of Moses and ancient Biblical times when Moses used a lottery to divide the land with his nephew Lot. Lottery was also used in some areas of ancient China to raise funds and finance the Chinese Great Wall.
This safe and secure form of gambling has been considered as a fair play by players of all times and places. However, it used to be banned in the USA in the beginning of the 20th century as the authorities believe the system would lead to further problems. However the ban was lifted in the 1930’s and players were allowed to buy a lottery card and await for the draw’s results. With the passing of time, different ways of playing Scratch cards developed in the different areas where the game was played, and they were also used as a means of advertising products or services, or to raise funds for charities. Prizes have also varied along time, as they were not very big in the beginning, and they could consist of a little amount of cash – usually doubling the price of the card - or some goods or products.
In the USA, this instant win lottery game, initially named “The Instant Game”, was started by a private company – the Dittley Brothers Lottery Division. The Massachusetts State Lottery also started to use Scratch Cards to raise funds for the Local government. Those Scratch Cards were pretty successful as they could offer some thing that the regular lottery could not offer: Instant Cash Prizes.
Scratch Cards then received a series of different names, such as Scratch Tickets, Scratcher, Scratch-Off, Scratch-It or Scratch Game. The idea of the game is quite simple – to get three equal Symbols or numbers in a row for the biggest prize, This is achieved by scratching off the adjacent boxes. However, with the passing of time, some other variations were devised. For example, if all the squares were scratched off the card would become invalid, and other variations required all the square boxes to be scratched off. Printers also started to adopt different themes such as holiday, sports, poker, etc., and even advertisements from manufacturers to grew in some popularity and sell their products or services.
The AstroMed Inc of West Warwick, a company in Rhode Island, patented the first Scratch Card in 1987. After that, this game became extremely popular, as the idea of winning a big amount of money is very attractive and moves players to buy cards even if they cannot win as often s they would like.
Scratch Cards are not typically sold at land based casinos, although some players have reported that they are given as a courtesy for players at the entrance, and their prizes consist of free games at one of the tables. When it comes to casinos, it was the virtual casino or “casino online” the one that took to Scratch Cards. Online casinos became popular in the 1990s, along with Internet. But it was not until the late 90’s that they were played in online casinos. As players cannot actually scratch the card off, they must point to the area they want to make visible and click on it for it to be revealed, little by little, as if a curtain was being pulled up. Both the odds for certain number or symbol combination are displayed on screen, and the numbers are chosen by a random number generator routine and audited by independent organizations to ensure that prizes are paid.
In recent years, online banking has contributed to the popularity of Scratch Cards all over the world, as players can offer their odds from their homes and offices and make use of the secure payment online systems to fund their online casino accounts and start playing in no time.
Overall, Scratch cards have not been popular as long as some other online casino games, but they are becoming more and more popular every year, as they are a fast and easy game to play. They have traditionally been associated to charities and other fund raising activities, so they are popular even among those who would not play any online casino game. Although the do not have the same interesting history as Blackjack or Keno, they are all fun, they are very rewarding, and there is a good cultural consensus related to them.