If you had been closely watching here over the past couple of days, you might have noticed a couple of lottery posts about scratch cards.

Yes, we're starting a new section in our blog articles with news and tips on scratch cards. They're also known as scratchies, scratchers, or scratch-offs.

Why are we doing this? Simply because a large number of lotto players play scratch cards along with the standard lottery games. And so it's all part of the lottery experience.

This chart shows the scratch off growth:

The number of instant game players is huge.

As proof, the North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries say that Americans spent $70 billion on lottery tickets in 2014.

The odds of winning an instant game prize of any value are better than for lottery games such as Powerball and MegaMillions.

And as instant tickets are used up without hitting the jackpots, the odds of winning are improved with the remaining cards left. That can make the game very attractive.

And while there is no way of getting regular wins on Scratchers as there is with lottery games, there are some ways to improve your chances.

You'll see articles here showing how others did it.

You'll see tips for winning here, like the supremo of scratch games, Joan Ginther.

She won an astounding $20 million just with an extraordinary scratch-off strategy. And there'll be scratch winner's stories too.

Because that's what we're all about... getting you winning more with news and tips that work.

So should you give up the lottery and play only scratchers? You'll get larger wins with most lottery games, but be able to play when you want to with scratch-offs.

Scratcher cards are cheaper too. For $1 or $2 a card, you can experience the thrill of the chance of winning millions with good playing odds.

So we’ll have something for all budgets. Give it a go!