This allowed people to play scratch card games online and use their mouse to actually “scratch” the card's surface to reveal their potential prize. The earliest scratch cards used Macromedia Flash and Java technology to simulate the gameplay of scratch cards on a computer screen. In late 20, scratch cards began appearing at online casinos. While scratch cards had been around for several decades, they did not go digital until after the 21st century. had patented a scratch card, making these instant gratification games even more popular. One of the very first scratch-off tickets, known as The Instant Game, was launched in the mid-1970s by the Massachusetts State Lottery. While lotteries have remained a prominent form of entertainment worldwide since ancient times, the scratch card as we know it today was not invented until the 1970s.