Available at the best online casinos, scratch cards are an exciting alternative to slots, table games, and card games. They lend themselves to easy-going sessions as well as those moments in which you want quick bursts of action, rather than gameplay that could go on for a length of time.
Like slots, you can find online scratch cards with various themes and special features that put a new spin on the traditional experience. Keep reading to find out all about the potentially rewarding genre of casino games.
History of the Cards
Although scratch cards were launched in the 1980s, their history actually begins in 1974, more than 10 years before they made their appearance. A Scientific Games Corporation retail promotion specialist named Daniel Bower and company scientist John Koza collaborated on an idea for an instant lottery game.
Using similar technology to that which powered Scientific Games Corporation’s instant lottery games, Rhode Island-based company Astro-Med created and patented a scratch-off lottery ticket in 1987. Scratch cards were launched in the USA and the UK that year, and it wasn’t long before they appeared in other countries. They reached the height of their popularity in the 1990s.
It did not take long to discover that the removable film used to cover the symbols on the cards was not good for the environment. That was when adhesive specialist Jerome Greenfield got involved in the story. He created a water-based coating that could withstand regular handling, but also could be scratched off easily.
A few years later, when the first online casinos were launched, the software providers that were active in the industry created online scratch cards for those sites. Initially as basic as the offline cards, the online editions are now more varied and versatile than anything offline could be.
Playing Scratch Cards Online
After launching the online scratch card that you want to play, you can decide how much you want to play it for. You can do this by changing the size of the bet by toggling the controls on the interface in the similar way Canadian players set up the wagers in Keno at https://canadiangambling.net/keno.
You can choose one of two ways of revealing the hidden symbols on your card. The first is by clicking each block of the covering graphic that hides the symbols. Each block will vanish as you click it. The second option is to select the Remove All, which will uncover all the symbols simultaneously.
The software will then check for wins automatically, and if you have won, you will receive your prize almost instantly.
How Online Scratch Cards Work
The symbols hidden by the removable graphics of online scratch cards are produced by Random Number Generator (RNG) software. The same software generates slot symbols, Roulette wheel results, and the playing cards that are dealt in other online casino games.
If you find at least 3 matching symbols once the covering has been removed, you win the prize indicated by the pay table. Some cards include Wilds that substitute for other symbols, while other cards may feature Multipliers that multiply the payout you win by the number shown. For example, a 3x Multiplier will triple your prize.