What prizes are offered in CA lottery second chance drawings?

1. Weekly Scratchers: many winners, mostly cash

The backbone of California’s 2nd Chance program is the weekly Scratchers 2nd Chance draws, which typically award 32 winners and advertise about $100,000 in cash and prizes each week, with those prizes described on the Lottery’s site as cash and “merchandise and unique experiences” during seasonal special promotions ^[1]. The weekly structure means many players win modest cash amounts rather than a single large jackpot; the site emphasizes the regular cadence and the large total weekly prize pool ^[1].

2. Themed “Bonus Draws”: fewer winners, bigger individual payouts

Seasonal or game-specific promotions — branded “2nd Chance Bonus Draws” — concentrate prizing into fewer, larger awards: the MONOPOLY Scratchers Bonus Draw listed one $30,000 grand prize plus four $5,000 second-tier prizes for a total $50,000 purse ^[2], while the Holiday Scratchers promotion scheduled four winners sharing $80,000 in prizing ^[4]. These promotions vary by game and by year, but they consistently offer multi-tiered cash awards and sometimes include non-cash prizes as outlined in the promotion rules ^{[2] [4]}.

3. Anniversary and special-event draws: tiered cash breakdowns

Special-event draws often combine a single large grand prize with numerous smaller tiers; for example, the 40 Years of Play draw featured a single $40,000 grand prize, four second-tier prizes of $4,000 each, and thirty-five third-tier prizes of $400 each, totaling forty winners and $70,000 in prizing ^[5]. Similarly, The Big Spin promotion documented a mix of weekly $2,500 winners and final-draw large prizes (one $50,000 and two $10,000 awards), totaling 35 winners and $150,000 in prizing ^[6]. Each event’s official rules list exact prize counts and values ^{[5] [6]}.

4. Draws tied to draw games (SuperLotto Plus, Fantasy 5): cash entries and tiered chances

Not all 2nd Chance entries are for Scratchers; some draw-game tickets carry 2nd Chance codes that convert dollars spent into entries — e.g., SuperLotto Plus tickets grant entries based on dollars played and those promotional draws have multi-tier prizes and weekly opportunities to win amounts such as $20,000 in certain campaigns ^{[7] [8]}. The Lottery’s site and individual promotion pages specify which draw games are eligible and how many entries a ticket generates ^{[7] [9]}.

5. Odds, eligibility and prize delivery: procedural constraints

The California Lottery is explicit that odds vary with total entries and that winners must be registered with a valid California address and an active 2nd Chance account to claim prizes; only one prize may be won per drawing by a player and some employees and vendors are excluded from eligibility ^{[7] [3]}. Winners are notified by email to log into their account, must submit a 2nd Chance Claim Form, and should allow up to eight weeks to receive prize payments as described in the official guidance ^{[8] [7] [10]}.

6. How to verify current prizes and avoid assumptions

Because prize structures are set per promotion, the only authoritative source for what specific prizes are being offered in any active 2nd Chance drawing is the Lottery’s Draws & Winners or Promotions pages and the promotional rules linked from each draw; those pages list dates, prize tiers and winners for past draws ^{[8] [3]}. The official mobile app also advertises access to special promotions and indicates total promotional prize pools for some campaigns (for example, over $200,000 in some app-promoted 2nd Chance activity), but the app and promotion pages should be checked for current details ^{[9] [11]}.