Have you ever come across an online version of a real-world game that just doesn’t seem to make sense to you? For me, that game is online scratch cards.

Online scratch cards (which you may know as Scratch Tickets, Scratchies or Instant Win Games – depending on your local lingo), is a game of chance that holds zero appeal for me in a digital format. I know there are many people who do like it – as there are enough games out there to prove its popularity – I just don’t happen to be one of them. 🤷‍♀️

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a fan of scratch cards I can buy at my local convenience stores, grocery stores, and drug stores (my favourites being BINGO and CASH FOR LIFE – pictured above). That said, I like them because it’s fun to physically play the game and I like to take my time scratching off the tiny sections to slowly reveal if the card I have is a winner.  

But online scratch cards are just…lacking for me somehow.

First of all, although I know that there are lots of online scratch games available in other jurisdictions (like the UK for example – which is good news if you’re from 🇬🇧 and you do happen to like this particular online casino game), there doesn’t seem to be a lot variety at Ontario online casinos.

I’m sure there’s probably a reason for this, like some sort of regulation, or the software providers who make the majority of these games don’t have the license or rights, or maybe where I’m currently playing isn’t partnered with those providers, etc., etc. Whatever the reason, I do want to put it out there that I haven’t had much experience with these games in any big or diverse way.

Still, even though I can’t say that I’ve personally played many online scratch cards, the ones I have tried…meh. 😐

I Gave Ted Big Money Scratch a Try

For instance, one of the online scratchcard games I’ve tried is the Ted Big Money Scratch Card. 🐻 Though the theme was spot-on, and the graphics and audio were great, it just felt like playing a scratch ticket that was kind of trying to be a slot game…

If you’re unfamiliar with this digital scratch game, it’s from Blueprint Gaming and its theme is based on the 2012 movie Ted (which I really liked btw!). The RTP is 80% and it’s a low volatility game. I’ve included some screenshots of the game – when I played it – below.

Essentially, the scratch card consists of three games. You pick your stake, you choose the number of cards you want to buy, and you play. 

• In the first game, you scratch off the four symbols. In typical scratch card style, you need to match values to win the corresponding prize (in this first game you need to match two).
• In the second game, you need to reveal a Bear symbol to win.
• In the third game, in each of the five columns, if YOURS weighs more than THEIRS, you win the corresponding prize for that column.

At any point in any of the three games (and over the course of the number of cards you bought), if you reveal a minimum of 3 Thunder Buddies Bonus symbols, the bonus game Wheel of Fartune is triggered. Essentially, a wheel will spin, and if it lands on an arrow, you progress to the next level of the wheel, which will trigger 1 of 3 bonus features (Bar Crawl Bonus, Ted’s Pyramid Bonus or Big Money) at random. The one I triggered when I played was the Bar Crawl Bonus.

This bonus takes you to a new screen that shows a city street. You enter stage 1 and select bottles, which lets you move around the board and increase your total bet multiplier. There are five different actions possible, and I chose to collect a Big Money counter, which took me to the Big Money Bonus game. Here, Ted (the bear) appears in the center of the screen and a bunch of multiplier values will spin and then stop, revealing your total bet multiplier. You then pick a “For Sale” sign. This triggers a respin, which will either add more multiplier values to your total or you will have to collect your total (which happened in my game), which leads to your winnings being multiplied by the total multiplier value.

Although I likely won’t play this Ted-themed online scratchcard game again (only because online scratch cards are not for me*), I will definitely keep playing the Ted Megaways slot game, because I prefer spinning reels to virtually scratching a digital card (no matter how many extra features it might have).

If you’ve never played the Ted Megaways slot and are curious? I’ve added Blueprint’s official YouTube video for it below if you want to have a look. 👇

Why Online Scratch Cards Aren’t For Me

In my opinion, I suppose the only real upsides of online scratch cards that I can see compared to the physical version are:

1. You can instantly access the game without having to go anywhere
2. You can pick the amount you want to bet on the card
3. There’s no mess of shavings (which can be extremely annoying to clean off a table – what is that stuff made of??)
4. You can unlock features in some of the games that just wouldn’t be possible with a physical card

Still. If I want to play a scratch card, I’ll take a walk to the store, pay my $5 for the card, deal with the shavings, and play a slot game if I need extra flashy digital features, thank you.

There’s just no fun in it for me to use my mouse to “scratch” and reveal what’s underneath or (worse) hitting one button to reveal if the card is a winner in an instant. 🤷‍♀️ At the end of the day, just as I know that not everyone is a fan of online slots like I am, I know I’ll always prefer the real-world scratch tickets experience to online scratch cards.

What about you? Is there an online game (casino or not) that you think is far better to enjoy in the real world? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Until next time, good luck and have fun!

Mia 👩‍💻

*I’m not a fan of online scratch cards in general. I swear I have nothing personal against the Ted Big Money Scratchcard game. 😂 I just used it as an example.

**All links in this post are for informational purposes only