Americans spend a huge amount on playing the lottery, so a financial website decided to discover more about their habits.

For the past three years a financial website has bought $1,000 worth of scratch-off tickets in an experiment to discover more about lottery consumer buying habits.

LendEDU went to four convenience stores around Hoboken, New Jersey, and bought tickets with the values of $1, $2, $5, $10, $20 and $30.

The total cash value spent on each ticket type ranged from $150 to $180.

It took some ‘extreme scratching, an unbelievable amount of dust,’ and they reported sheer frustration with the crossword puzzle tickets.

But the winning results were worth the effort:

The turning point came when CEO Nate Matherson scratched his first $30 ticket and won over $2,000, putting the experiment instantly into profit.

Overall the return on investment (ROI) was 173.80%.

The most valuable ticket type was the $30 ticket, winning $2,150 and achieving a 1,333.33% ROI.

Was it worth it? The previous year’s experiments showed a different story.

In the two previous years this study was done, LendEDU lost a decent chunk of change: -$141 for 2018 and -$26 for 2017, on the same amount of scratch-off tickets.

But the 2019 results more than made up for it.

ABOUT: LendEDU is a website that helps consumers learn about and compare financial products, including student loans, personal loans and credit cards.