in an instant lottery ticket game structure having a lottery administration host computer that includes a ticket validation file containing prize codes for at least some of the lottery tickets , provision for instant lottery tickets having variable redemption values can be made by allowing the prize codes in the validation file to be changed under certain predetermined circumstances . at least some of the lottery tickets in the game , whether printed or electronically simulated , can be provided with play indicia under a removable coating that indicates that the redemption value of that lottery ticket is variable . using the host computer , a lottery administration can change the prize codes and therefore the redemption value of these instant lottery tickets according to the predetermined criteria such as the termination of a game . in some cases , a player can have the option to redeem an instant lottery ticket for a first value or wait until after termination of the game where a possibly higher redemption value might be assigned to that ticket due to the host computer randomly selecting that ticket to change its prize code to a greater value .