Scratch Card

Updated by Darryl Waterhouse on 3 November 2026 8 min read

Give your visitors an instant win. Scratch Card puts a scratch card on any page: visitors enter with their email address, scratch the cover off with a finger or the mouse, and find out straight away whether they have won a discount code, a freebie or a "better luck next time". You decide the prizes, the odds and how many of each there are, and you design the card. Scratch Card is a Pro Tool, and can be gifted to a site.

What it does

Two kinds of card.
- Reveal a message - under the cover is what they won, or "Better luck next time!".
- Match three symbols - under the cover are nine symbols. Three the same wins the prize with that symbol. A losing card never shows three the same.
Up to 12 rows, each a prize or a "no win", with a name, a chance and what it gives.
What a prize gives:
- No win - "Better luck next time!" (or your own words). Add one or more of these so that not every card wins.
- A message - for example "Show this screen at the till for a free coffee".
- A code everyone shares - the same code for every winner of that prize, such as SCRATCH10.
- A unique code from my list - paste your own codes (gift card numbers, one-off vouchers); each winner gets the next one, and no code is ever given twice.
- A single-use Shop discount code - with the Shopping Cart Pro Tool, a new code is made in your Shop for each winner: a percentage or an amount off, an optional minimum spend, and how many days it lasts. It shows in Shop > Discounts, and works once.
How many of each prize: leave it empty for no limit, or give a number. When a prize runs out (or its list of codes does) it is never drawn again, and its share of the chances goes to the other rows.
Chances you can see. Each row's chance is a weight: 20 is twice as likely as 10. The editor shows each row's real chance as a percentage, and roughly how many cards win.
Fair by design. The prize is picked on the server, with a secure random number, the moment the card is dealt - and it stays on the server until the card is scratched. Nobody can peek at a card before scratching it, and two people playing at the same moment can never both take the last prize.

Getting started

Switch Scratch Card on in Tools.
Open Tools > Games > Scratch Card and choose New scratch card. A new card starts with three example prizes and a "No win" row - change them to your own.
Give it a title, set the prizes and their chances, and design the cover. The Preview shows the card as players see it - scratch it with the mouse to try it, and choose whether a win or a loss is underneath.
Press Test and play it yourself (see below).
Set the status to Open and save.
Put it on any page:

[scratch-card id="scratch-and-win" /]

The id is the card's Short name, shown with its shortcode in the editor and the list.

The card's settings

Title, Short name, Status (Draft, Open, Closed), Kind of card.
Introduction (above the card) and Terms (beside it, and in the winner's email).
Opens and Closes - optional times. A draft is not shown at all; a closed card says it has closed (a card someone was already dealt can still be scratched).
Show the prizes to players - a "You could win" list beside the card, with the symbols on a match-three card. It never says how many are left. Show the odds too adds each prize's chance.
Animations - the cover fades away and a win gets a burst of confetti. Visitors who have asked for less motion (on their device, or with the site's motion switch) see the result straight away.

The cover

Colour and Finish - silver foil, a plain colour, glitter or stripes.
Card - the colour of the card under the cover.
Words on the cover - "Scratch here", or your own (leave it empty for none).
Picture on the cover - optional, from your site's Media: your logo, a pattern or the offer. It sits over the colour and under the words. It has to be in Media (not on another site), so the card can tell how much has been scratched.
Reveal at - once this much of the cover has been scratched away (20% to 90%), the rest falls away and the result shows.
Other symbols (match-three cards) - the symbols that fill the grid besides the prizes' own: emoji or up to four letters each, separated by spaces. You need at least five different symbols in all.

On a match-three card each prize also has its own symbol (beside its name) - the one that has to come up three times.

Who can play

Ask for an email address (on unless you switch it off). This is the real limit: cards are counted per address.
Consent box under the email address: it must be ticked to play, or can be left unticked. The wording comes from the settings (the cog), or give a card its own.
Ask for a name - optional for the player.
Cards each, each day or ever - for example one card a day each, or three cards each in all.
Also limit each browser - the browser remembers its own cards. This is a soft check (a private window gets round it), so keep the email address on when the prizes matter.
Cards a day in all - stop for the day after so many cards. 0 means no limit.
Cards a day per connection (in the settings, for every card) - the most cards one internet connection can have on a card in a day, whatever addresses or browsers it uses (20 unless you change it, 0 for no limit). It stops a script from emptying your prizes. Keep it generous: everyone on a cafe's Wi-Fi shares one connection. The connection's address is never stored.
If a card gives unique or Shop codes but does not ask for an email address, the editor warns you: only the browser and the per-connection limit would stand in the way.
A hidden field catches robots, and each visitor can ask for at most 10 cards a minute.

Playing

The player enters their details and presses Get my card. The card is dealt, and they scratch it with a finger, the mouse or a pen. Anyone using a keyboard (or who would rather not scratch) can press Reveal it. A card that is dealt but not scratched waits for them: when they come back to the page, it is there to scratch.

After scratching, the player sees what they won, with the code in large letters and a Copy button. A Shop code shows what it is worth and the last day to use it. If the site can send email and Email winners their prize is on (in the settings), the winner is emailed the code as soon as they scratch, with your terms, and the screen says so.

Entries

Entries (on each card in the list, and on the editor's banner) shows every card played, newest first: when, the email address and name, the prize and the code.

The prize is drawn when the card is dealt, so a card nobody has scratched yet already has its prize (marked Not scratched).
Shop codes show whether they have been used at checkout. For other codes, tick Redeemed when the winner uses theirs.
Hide takes an entry out of the counts and the CSV - a duplicate, or a member of staff trying it. It still counts as that person's go. Show puts it back.
Delete removes an entry for good. Its code is not put back.
Stock lists how many of each prize have been won and how many are left.
Download CSV saves every entry that is not hidden, for your records or mailing list. Only use the addresses as your consent wording said.

Testing a card

Test plays the saved card right there in the Tool, exactly as your players see it, with the prize drawn by the server the same way. A test card takes nothing: no stock, no code from your list and no Shop code (a made-up TEST code shows instead). Only the latest test card is kept on the Entries screen, marked Test, and it never counts towards any limit. With unsaved changes the button says Save and test.

Settings (the cog)

These apply to every card:

Consent wording - the words beside the tick box, unless a card has its own.
Email winners their prize - send the code (or message) by email when a winning card is scratched. Needs the site's mail server, under System > Site Settings > Email.
Email subject - {site} becomes your site's name.
Cards a day per connection - see Who can play.
Running low at - when a prize (or its list of codes) has this many or fewer left, the sidebar badge shows it and the admins get a notice.

The number beside Scratch Card in the sidebar is how many prizes are running low (or have run out) on open cards. Hover it for the list. No number means every prize has plenty left.

Topping up

To top up a prize, open the card: raise How many, or paste more codes into the prize's code box (codes already given out are never added again). Clear the codes left removes the unused codes from a prize when you save.

Notifications

Scratch Card winners - someone has scratched a winning card. Off unless you switch it on in your notification settings.
Scratch Card prizes running low - a prize or its codes are running low, or have run out.

Export and import

Export (a card's menu, or the editor's banner) saves one card as a file; Export all saves every card.
Import adds the cards in a file as drafts, beside the ones you have.
A file carries the card, its cover and its prizes only - never the entries, never how many have been won, and never the unique codes not yet given out (a file gets passed around, and a code in it could be used by anyone). Paste the codes again after importing. A cover picture travels as its address in Media, so copy the picture to the other site's Media too.

Gifting

Scratch Card can be given to a site as a gift, for good or for a number of days, as well as bought.