Top 5 Scratch Cards with the Highest Return to Player

Scratchcards have been entertaining players since their creation in the 1970s. Their popularity quickly spread, appealing to many who enjoy scratching off the silver foil to match symbols for a win.

Indeed, the experience of scratching and blowing away the shavings of foil with a coin can be a memorable one - mainly because you find the mess for the next three weeks!

Thankfully, online scratchcards, also known as instant wins, eliminate those annoying shavings. 

However, game providers still manage to emulate the experience, offering various ways to reveal scratch game symbols, including pulling tabs or a Minesweeper-style reveal.

You’ll find an abundance of scratchcards available at the best NZ casinos, but have you ever thought about the RTP%? 

Return to Player (RTP) percentage is the metric used to identify the amount expected to be paid back to players in winnings over the long term.

Scratchcard RTPs vary wildly, so we’ve researched the scratchcards with the highest RTP. It's worth noting that these scratchcards are only available at a few select casinos, as detailed below:

1. Lucky Yuanbao (96.59% RTP)

Based on the Chinese New Year celebration, Lucky Yuanbao by Gaming Corps is a festival of lights, lucky red envelopes and Yuanbao gold ingots - all traditional symbols of wealth.

The 5x5 grid of red envelopes hide the Yuanbao symbols beneath. Choose you bet value and scratch to reveal the Yuanbaos.

The more Yuanbaos you reveal, the greater your prize and you can choose to cash out at any time with any number of Yuanbaos. 

But beware, revealing an angry firecracker will end the game and you’ll get nothing.

Alternatively, you can select how many firecrackers are in play. The more you put in play, the more you can win as there’s a greater chance of revealing one to end the game.

The 'Treasure Boost' feature is randomly awarded and increases the players’ chances of revealing a Yuanbao.

Even if you’re not normally a fan of scratch cards, Lucky Yuanbao is a very simple, yet highly entertaining instant win game.

Lucky Yuanbao is exclusively available in New Zealand at:

2. Bar-X Pull Tab (96.27% RTP)

Bar-X Pull Tab by Realistic Games is the only game on our list to offer a feature bonus of free games, along with the opportunity to re-trigger them.

Instead of the usual scratch off silver foil, game symbols are revealed by pulling tabs located to the right of the four rows.

The main game symbols consist of crosses, cherries, watermelons, 7s and the traditional BAR symbol. Flaming Hot 7s and Wilds are the highest paying symbols at 50x.

Reveal just two Free Games scatter symbols to trigger the 10 free games bonus or three scatters for 30 free games, played on different reels. A multiplier can increase your wins by up to 10x.

The maximum win of 2,500x is quite substantial for an online scratchcard, especially with a bonus game that can retrigger.

Bar-X Pull Tab is available in NZ at both of the following casinos:

3. Lucky Leprechaun Scratch (96.05% RTP)

With pots of gold, fiddles, lucky charms, and of course Leprechauns, could you get any more Irish than Lucky Leprechaun Scratch by Games Global?

This scratch game is as simple as they come - there are nine positions on the game table and scratching off three matching symbols lands you a prize:

• 3 pipes pay 1x
• 3 tankards of beer pay 3x
• 3 fiddles pay 5x
• 3 Leprechauns pay 15x
• 3 lucky charms pay 50x
• 3 Pots of Gold pay 750x

While the 750x maximum win is not the biggest, the hit frequency is much higher, so you can expect many more of the lower-paying winning combinations to keep you playing.

Play Lucky Leprechaun Scratch at the following NZ casinos:

4. Avalon Scratch (96.03% RTP)

Themed around their highly successful Avalon slot, Microgaming (now Games Global) created Avalon Scratch to satisfy the instant win market.

Avalon is a mythical island featured in Arthurian legend, so Avalon Scratch is themed accordingly. The artwork is somewhat dated, but fans of the original slot will certainly find it familiar.

The game is played on a 3x3 grid and the winning symbols are crowns, jewels and treasure chests. The maximum win of 1,000x your stake is fairly standard for an instant win, high turnover game like this.

Avalon Scratch can be played in New Zealand at both of these casinos:

5. Immortal Romance Scratch (96.01% RTP)

Immortal Romance Scratch is based on the hugely popular online slot game of the same name, originally created by Microgaming.

Featuring the familiar dark and mysterious graphics as the slot game, Immortal Romance Scratch also includes the same characters.

Each character represents a different prize, as shown in the full pay table below:

• Candle pays 1x your stake
• The manor pays 2x your stake
• Amber pays 5x your stake
• Troy pays 10x your stake
• Michael pays 20x your stake
• Sarah pays 500x your stake

The game is played on a 3x3 panel and rather than ‘scratch’, you simply click on a panel to remove the cover and reveal the symbol beneath.

Immortal Romance Scratch can only currently be played in New Zealand at Betway:

Honourable Mention

One of our favourites that only just missed out on the Top 5 Scratchcards for RTP list is Squeaky Blinders from Black Pudding Games (96% RTP). 

Rather than scratching off panels, the player aims the crosshairs of a gun at plates. Shooting the plate reveals mice of varying colours and values. It’s a cheesy but fun game to play.

This scratchcard is available to play in NZ at Slot Paradise.