Scratchcards in Holland for a small price

Dutch Scratch Cards or Krasloten; all you need to know

Krasloten are the impulse buy of the Dutch lottery world. You pick one up at the supermarket checkout, scratch the coating off with a coin, and know within ten seconds whether you have won. There is no draw to wait for and no numbers to choose. Nederlandse Loterij runs the whole range under a Dutch licence, with tickets from €1 to €20 and top prizes up to €250,000. What follows is the current line-up, how the odds actually work, what the taxman takes, and how to collect if you hit something big.

Quick facts

How a kraslot works

Every scratch card belongs to a printed series. Before that series goes on sale, the full prize structure is fixed: how many tickets exist, how many winners are in there, and what each of them is worth. Nothing is decided at the moment you scratch. The outcome was set when the batch was printed, and your ticket has simply been sitting in a box waiting for you to reveal what it already was.

That has one practical consequence worth understanding. As a series sells through, the big prizes get claimed and the remaining tickets carry worse value than the series average, even though every individual card still costs the same. Nederlandse Loterij publishes which series are currently valid along with their prize schedules, so it is possible to see what is still out there before you buy.

The mechanics differ per game. Some cards are a straight match-three. Others use a multiplier symbol, a bonus round, or several mini-games on one ticket. The scratching itself is theatre, but the entertainment is the point: a kraslot is a few seconds of anticipation, priced accordingly.

The current range

The line-up rotates, with seasonal editions appearing around December and summer. These are the regulars, with their prices and headline prizes.

What the prize schedules actually show

Nederlandse Loterij publishes a full prize schedule for every series, filed with the Chamber of Commerce in The Hague. Each one lists how many tickets were printed, how many prizes are in the batch and what they are worth. Those documents are where the real numbers live, and they say something the front of the card does not.

Divide the prize pool by what the series takes in and you get the payout ratio — the share of players' money that comes back as prizes. Three current series, worked out:

The pattern runs the opposite way to intuition: the cheaper the card, the less of your money comes back. A euro spent on Klavertje 4 returns about 45 cents in expected prizes; the same euro spent on 100x Cash returns about 70. The difference is fixed print and distribution cost, which weighs far more heavily on a €1 ticket than a €20 one. If you are buying scratch cards at all, five €1 cards are a materially worse deal than one €5 card.

Why "1 in 4.65" is not what it sounds like

Klavertje 4 advertises overall odds of 1 in 4.65, which reads like a one-in-five shot. Its schedule lists 1,291,686 prizes in the series — but 750,000 of those are a free €1 scratch card, not money. Strip those out and the chance of winning any cash at all is 1 in 11.1. The schedule's lowest cash tier is €1, so a further slice of what is left is your euro handed straight back.

100x Cash tells the same story at a different scale. It lists 247,346 prizes against odds of 1 in 3.32, but 96,940 of them are €20 — exactly the ticket price. The chance of finishing a card ahead rather than level is 1 in 5.45.

The jackpots are rarer than the marketing suggests too. Those 820,000 100x Cash tickets contain two prizes of €250,000, which is 1 in 410,000. Klavertje 4's two €25,000 top prizes sit in a series of six million, at 1 in 3,000,000.

None of this makes krasloten a scam. The schedules are public, the odds are stated, and the money that does not come back funds retail margin, tax, good causes and the operator. It does mean the headline winkans is the least informative number on the packet.

Where to buy

Physical tickets are sold wherever Nederlandse Loterij products are stocked: Albert Heijn, Jumbo, Primera, Bruna, AKO, tobacconists, petrol stations and kiosks. You buy at the register, scratch on the spot or take it home, and claim small prizes back at the same counter.

Online cards are the second route, played through the Nederlandse Loterij site or app. The mechanics are identical, the ticket is drawn from a licensed digital series, and prizes are credited to your account rather than paid over a counter. One difference matters: online play requires an account, identification, and the deposit and playing limits that come with a Dutch licence. That is a safeguard, not a hurdle.

Whichever route you take, buying from a licensed operator is what gives you legal recourse if something goes wrong. Foreign scratch card sites aimed at Dutch players are operating without a Dutch licence, and the protections you would expect simply do not apply there. Our overview of the role of the regulator explains what a licence actually guarantees.

Tax on scratch card prizes

Dutch gambling tax, kansspelbelasting, applies to lottery prizes above €449. Prizes of €449 or less are exempt, which covers the overwhelming majority of scratch card wins. That is why Nederlandse Loterij can state that its prize money is paid net: for the small wins there is nothing to deduct, and for the larger ones the operator settles the tax before paying you.

The rate rose to 37.80% on 1 January 2026, up from 34.2% in 2025, as the second step of a phased increase. Two details catch people out:

• The tax applies to the whole prize, not just the part above €449. A €500 prize is taxed at 37.80% of €500, which is €189, leaving €311. Cross the threshold by a euro and the full amount becomes taxable.
• You do not file anything yourself. For prizes from a Dutch-licensed operator, the organiser declares and pays the tax. What arrives in your account is already net.

A full breakdown of the rates and how they apply to other games sits on our Dutch gambling tax page.

Claiming a prize

Small amounts are paid straight back at the point of sale. Larger prizes go through Nederlandse Loterij directly, which means sending in or presenting the winning ticket and identifying yourself. The exact ceiling a shop will pay out varies by retailer [CHECK].

Two rules are worth taking seriously. Keep the ticket safe and unmarked beyond the scratch panel, because a physical kraslot is a bearer instrument: whoever holds it can claim it. And be aware that valid series have an end date after which prizes can no longer be claimed, so an old card found in a drawer may already be worthless even if it is a winner.

No legitimate lottery ever asks you to pay a fee to release a prize. Any message claiming you have won a scratch card prize and requesting a payment or your bank details first is fraud, without exception.

Pros and cons

How scratch cards compare with the draw games

Krasloten and draw lotteries scratch different itches. A kraslot gives you a result now for a euro or two, with a ceiling of €250,000. A draw game asks you to wait but plays for far larger sums: Eurojackpot runs to €120 million, and EuroMillions to €250 million, though neither is licensed the same way — EuroMillions has no Dutch licence at all.

For a domestic draw with a Saturday result there is Dutch Lotto, and Lucky Day offers a different structure again. The complete picture of what is licensed in this market is on our Dutch lotteries overview.

Responsible play

Scratch cards deserve a particular word of caution. The instant result is what makes them fun, and it is also what makes them the easiest lottery product to buy repeatedly in one sitting. A draw game gives you days between purchase and outcome. A kraslot gives you seconds, and then another card is right there at the counter.

Decide before you buy how much you are spending, and treat that as the price of the entertainment rather than an investment that might come good. If play stops being fun, free and confidential support is available through AGOG, and self-exclusion across all licensed Dutch operators runs through the CRUKS register.

Further reading

• All Dutch lotteries at a glance
• How gambling tax works in the Netherlands
• Eurojackpot: draws, odds and prizes