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Ohio Lottery players keep coming back for a second scan.
Nearly 570,000 of them scanned a Scratch Connect code off their $5 Bonus Cash Wheel tickets between the game’s July launch and Aug. 22, according to Scientific Games, the company behind the feature. 90% of those players finished the digital game the code unlocked. 40% hit the button to play it again with a different ticket.
That’s the number that actually matters. Not the scans. The replays.
Scratch Connect is a bridge between a physical ticket and a phone screen. Scratch off the marked box on a Bonus Cash Wheel card, scan the QR code underneath, confirm you’re old enough to play, and a short digital game called Reach the Wheel opens up. No app to download. No account to create.
The experience gives traditional scratch-offs a taste of online scratch-offs without requiring players to create an account or register.
Win or lose on the digital side, the physical ticket remains the bearer instrument. Any prize associated with the ticket or its digital bonus game can be redeemed at an Ohio Lottery retail location, just like other Ohio scratch-off prizes.
How Scratch Connect works
Ohio is the third state to get Scratch Connect, following launches in Kentucky and Pennsylvania. Scientific Games built this version around Bonus Cash Wheel’s own look, carrying the wheel graphic and other visual elements from the paper ticket onto the phone screen.
The system also doesn’t require integration with a lottery’s existing system vendor, which Scientific Games says can help lotteries launch the product without additional integration challenges.
Here’s the part worth watching. Scratch Connect gives players a way to move from a physical scratch-off into a digital bonus experience without adding an account or registration step.
No login, no email, no password to forget. And the completion rate is notable: Ninety percent of players who scanned the code went on to finish the digital game.
Scientific Games said more Scratch Connect games are planned, though it has not identified the next lottery or game to receive the feature.
Charlie Scannella, vice president of customer success and relationship management for Scientific Games, said in a press release:
“The early response to Bonus Cash Wheel demonstrates the opportunity lotteries have to connect retail and digital play in a way that feels natural to players.”
