Method
How the numbers are built
Savvy Scratcher does not invent prize counts. Remaining winners come from Washington's Lottery. The remaining-ticket estimate and expected value are a published-odds model on top of that table.
Sources
Prize tiers, remaining counts, and the lottery's Updated stamp are ingested from Top Prizes Remaining. We read each ticket-price page ($1 through $30). Published overall odds and tickets printed come from the official Scratch Explorer data feed on walottery.com. Competitor sites are not used.
Tickets left
Tickets left (est.) = remaining winners × published overall odds
Remaining winners is the sum of prizes still unpaid across every printed tier. Overall odds are the lottery's published figure, such as 1 in 3.91. That product is an estimate of unsold and unredeemed tickets still in the distribution — not a pack-level inventory.
Expected value
EV = Σ(prize × remaining) / tickets left
Today EV is the remaining prize pool divided by estimated tickets left. Launch EV uses the same prize values against the official tickets-printed count. Cents back per $1 is that EV divided by the ticket price, shown in cents. The launch line stays pinned to the first snapshot stored for a game, so a later revision of the printed table does not move it.
Rack labels
The Washington list compares today's cents back per $1 with launch. Improved means at least 2 cents higher than launch. Diminished means at least 2 cents lower. Everything closer than that is Steady. Games with no top prize left sit in a separate No Jackpots Left section. Within each label, higher cents back per $1 come first. The bar uses one shared scale: the arrow clamps at 10 cents above or below that game's launch line. Improved means less bad, not a reason to buy.
How prizes are counted
Prizes of $1,000,000 or more are counted at their 50% lump-sum cash option, the amount printed on Washington ticket backs. $1,000,000 Sizzling Riches is counted at $500,000. A $2,000,000 prize is counted at $1,000,000. Smaller prizes are counted at face value. Lucky for Life's LIFE tier is counted at the published $750,000 lump sum, not a lifetime of weekly checks. The Bronco on Keys and Cash is counted at the official $70,720 prize valuation. A smaller annuity, when the cash option is not in that $1,000,000 rule, is counted as the advertised total of its payments and labeled on the game page.
What this is not
These figures are not a prediction that a given retailer still holds a given ticket. They are not advice to buy. Most tickets lose. If you play, treat the price as entertainment spend you can afford to lose.