ialottery blog

What Promotions Do You Have?

We've been hearing from lottery players who say they have some tickets on hand that they'd like to enter in a second-chance drawing, but they aren't sure what promotions we have going.

The easy way to check our promotions list is just to visit our Web site and click on the "promotions" tab there. That takes you to a page that lists any current promotions we have underway and shows the results and winners in our most recent promotions that have ended.

We vary our promotions between those that allow you to enter online and those that require you to send in tickets to the lottery. We also rotate our promotions between our lotto, instant-scratch and pull-tab games to offer new chances to win to players who buy the different products.

While we know we can't make all of the people happy all of the time, we do our best to accommodate different points of view.

Be sure to check back to our promotions page on Monday for all the details about a new promotion we’ll soon offer in the Hot Lotto game!

Where Can I Claim My Prize?

A Sioux City woman recently wrote to us to ask about cashing lottery tickets at retail locations. She said she’d tried to cash a $150-winning ticket at a local store and was told by the clerk that the store didn’t have the money on hand to pay the prize. The clerk told her she could claim the prize from the lottery. The woman wondered if that was right, because she didn’t want to have to drive to a lottery office to claim her prize.

Luckily, there were other options for her that also will work for you if you’re ever in the same spot. The answer to the question comes in two parts and must take into account the very real issues that exist in the retail environment.

First, remember that all prizes of more than $600 must be claimed at the lottery. There are two reasons for that: our offices can provide greater security for you when you’re claiming a larger amount of money, and there are tax forms you’ll need to fill out when you’re claiming a prize of that size. The Iowa Lottery has offices in Des Moines, Council Bluffs, Storm Lake, Mason City and Cedar Rapids. Click here for a list of our office addresses. Prizes up to $250,000 can be claimed at any lottery office; prizes greater than that must be claimed at lottery headquarters in Des Moines. 

The lottery requires that its retailers pay prizes of up to $100. We ask that they pay prizes up to $600, but not all stores will have the cash on hand to do that. We all have to remember that security is a top priority for retail locations and their staff, and cash on hand in a location often is kept to a minimum, especially during business hours after dark.

If the retail location you've visited isn't able to pay your prize, you have a couple options: You might try to claim the prize at a larger store that sells lottery tickets, such as a supermarket. Because that type of business has a high customer traffic level, it may have the cash on hand to pay your prize. Or, you can visit one of our offices or send the ticket to us so we can validate it. Lottery prizes (except Powerball and Hot Lotto jackpots) can be claimed by mail. A claim form is required for prizes of more than $100. Sign the back of your ticket and mail it along with your name and address to:

Iowa Lottery
P.O. Box 10474
Des Moines, IA 50305-9996.

About Our Overall Odds …

One of the most common questions we get here at the lottery has to do with the issue of overall odds, and what exactly they mean. 

I've blogged about it here before, but the questions keep coming, so I think it's something we should cover again. The question we get usually goes something like this (although it's sometimes not this polite): Your scratch game says it has overall odds of winning of 1 in 3.84. I bought four tickets, but none of them won. I think your odds are wrong.

The short answer is that no, the odds aren’t wrong. But the full explanation is a bit more detailed than that.

We provide both the overall odds of winning in our games and the odds of winning for individual prize levels. We’re trying to provide the fullest amount of information possible to help you decide which tickets you want to buy.

Let's take our current "4 Way Cash" scratch game as an example. It has overall odds of winning of 1 in 3.84. Those odds don't mean that if you buy four tickets in the game, one of them is guaranteed to win a prize. They mean that if you bought all of the tickets available in the game, about 1 in 4 would win a prize.
 
Each of our games often involve millions of tickets and for security reasons, winning tickets are randomly distributed to ensure that no one -- not even those of us who work at the lottery -- knows exactly which tickets are winners. That also means that winning tickets in our games are in no particular order.

You can find information about the odds in our games on our tickets themselves, on our Web site and in the brochures we distribute about our games. If you ever need more information, just let us know and we’ll be glad to share it with you!

Twitter/Facebook Contest Winners

Thanks to everyone who entered our Twitter/Facebook contest today! Check out video of the results here. We hope all our winners have a great time attending the Missouri-Iowa St. men’s basketball game on Feb. 7 in Ames!
 
Five of today’s contest winners will get two sets of free tickets to the basketball game, while ten contest winners will get one set of free tickets to the game.

Winner of 2 sets of tickets	Winners of 1 set of tickets
@johnmyrz (Twitter)	@BobSanti (Twitter)
@mas1683 (Twitter)	@JeffAngelo (Twitter)
@BaberhoodJerry (Twitter)	@Kathy_L (Twitter)
Jessica Boddicker (Facebook)	@chriswoods85 (Twitter)
@cuffd_Julie (Twitter)	Cindy Claassen (Facebook)
	@chewbocka (Twitter)
	@dlayphoto (Twitter)
	@sdroyer (Twitter)
	@stevezilla (Twitter)
	@schippers (Twitter)

Congrats to each of our winners! You’ll need to contact Pam Brocker, the lottery’s promotions manager, at 515.725.7929 so she can take down your information and send out your tickets! Thanks to everyone who entered, and thanks for following and friending us! Be sure to watch for another contest next month!

When Is Jackpot Money Available After Drawing?

I’ve got to hand it to you as blog readers – you’re planning ahead to make sure you’re prepared to claim those Powerball jackpot winnings! We’ve heard from folks who have seen all the Powerball information we’ve posted here in our blog, but they’re taking it a step further and want to know just how quickly the jackpot winnings are available after they’ve been won in a drawing.

As you know, Powerball tickets are sold at thousands of locations in each of the jurisdictions where the game is played. That currently includes Iowa, 29 other states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands. We carefully track sales leading up to a drawing so we know exactly what amount the jackpot will be and how much of the jackpot money will come from each jurisdiction.

After the drawing, the money has to be transferred into a central account and it takes about two weeks for that to happen. If a winner comes forward to claim the jackpot before then, we’ll make arrangements with them for them to claim the money as soon as it’s available. If you claim your prize after two weeks, the jackpot money (either the cash amount or the first of the annual payments, depending on which option you choose) can generally hit your account the next day.

So now you know, so you’ll be prepared to claim the jackpot when it’s your turn! 

Tax Forms For Lottery Winnings

When you win a prize of more than $600 in an Iowa Lottery game, the lottery sends to you a form that you will need to use to file your taxes for that calendar year. The document is called a W-2G form and it lists the gross amount you have won in lottery prizes during the year as well as any federal and state taxes that were withheld from those winnings.

As you can imagine, with the millions of winners that the lottery has each year, it takes some time to process all of those forms and get them ready to send out. The Iowa Lottery begins to review the records of its winners and prepare the documents as soon as each calendar year ends.

The forms must be mailed by Jan. 31 of the new year and the lottery always meets that deadline. We try to have the forms processed before then if possible, but they are always mailed out no later than Jan. 31.

Next Twitter/Facebook Contest

Mark your calendars for our next contest on Facebook and Twitter! It’s set for 2 p.m. next Friday (Jan. 23). We’ve got a whole pack of prizes this time around: 20 sets of tickets to the Missouri-Iowa St. men’s basketball game on Feb. 7 in Ames!

Just follow us on Twitter or join our fan page on Facebook, give the correct answer to an EASY question during the contest and you’ll be entered for a chance to win one of the sets of tickets. It all kicks off at 2 p.m. on Jan. 23, and the contest will only last for 15 minutes!

At 2 p.m. next Friday, we’ll pose an easy question on Twitter and Facebook. If you don’t know the answer off the top of your head, you’ll be able to find it on our Web site! 

Reply with the right answer within the next 15 minutes and you’ll be entered into our contest for a chance to win one of the 20 sets of free tix to the basketball game! Reply to @ialottery on Twitter or write your answer on the lottery’s wall on our Facebook fan page. (Don’t direct message us on Twitter, as direct messages aren’t eligible for entry.) 
 
We’ll assign a number to your name based upon the order in which the correct answers are received. Then we’ll write the numbers on pieces of paper, wad the paper up to make “mini-basketballs,” and toss them through a plastic hoop to see which one lands closest to the target.

We’ll videotape the contest results, then post the video on our Web site and YouTube. We’ll also provide a link to the video from Twitter and we’ll post an announcement with the winners’ names on Twitter and Facebook. If you win, you’ll need to contact us with your name and mailing address so we can send out your tickets!

A few requirements:

• You’ve got to be at least 21 years old to enter, and you must live in Iowa.
• No purchase necessary to enter or to win!

Good luck and if you win, enjoy the basketball game!

Deadline Approaches For Holiday Riches Drawing

The holidays are over, but you still have time to enter our “Holiday Riches” drawing for a chance to win the top prize of $100,000 or one of 20 prizes of $1,000.   

The game’s drawing is set for Jan. 22, and the deadline to enter is Tuesday, Jan. 20.

So if you didn’t win an instant prize on your Holiday Riches instant-scratch ticket, visit our Web site at www.ialottery.com and enter the serial number from the back of your ticket on the form on our promotions page.

Be sure to keep each ticket you enter because you’ll have to present it to claim a prize!

Click here to learn more about Holiday Riches.

New Games To Benefit Iowa Veterans Trust Fund

You can help Iowa veterans by purchasing tickets in some new lottery games hitting the market this month.

The "Land of Liberty" pull-tab game starts sales today, while the "Freedom Rings" instant-scratch game goes on sale Jan. 26. Proceeds from the sale of tickets in both games support veterans and their families through the Iowa Veterans Trust Fund. The games' tickets feature the logo of the Veterans Trust Fund so you can easily tell they're dedicated to that cause.

Legislation was approved last year authorizing the Iowa Lottery to release a few games each year to benefit the Veterans Trust Fund. The Lottery will create two new instant-scratch games and two additional pull-tab games each year, with all profits from those games dedicated to the Trust Fund.

We estimate that the new games will provide about $2 million to $3 million in proceeds annually for the Iowa Veterans Trust Fund. The Lottery already has transferred nearly $1 million to the fund for the current fiscal year and we'll make another transfer later this month, keeping us right on target to meet those projections.

The Iowa Veterans Trust Fund was created to provide assistance to qualified veterans in paying for expenses such as job training and college tuition assistance, travel expenses so wounded veterans can receive follow-up medical care; and individual or family counseling programs. Click here for more information about the Veterans Trust Fund.

Winners In Midwest Millions Drawing

Last year, Iowa Lottery players claimed both of the $500,000 prizes in “Midwest Millions,” so we’ve been waiting to see how we’d do in this year’s game. The results of the first drawing this time around are in … And, Sandra Vines of Wichita, Kan won the top prize of $500,000.

The Midwest Millions drawing was held today in Topeka, Kan. More than 70,000 entries were received for it, and we gave away a top prize of $500,000 along with five prizes of $10,000!

The winners were:

Prize Amount	Name	City and State
$500,000	Sandra Vines	Wichita, KS
$10,000	Jim Gardner	Ottumwa, IA
$10,000	Dave Von Sprecken	Swisher, IA
$10,000	Steve Dillon	Hutchinson, KS
$10,000	Eric Corrill	Council Bluffs, IA
$10,000	Roma Wisdom	Eudora, KS

There will be another drawing in the game on April 17 in Des Moines, so if you didn’t win a prize in today’s contest, we hope you’ll try again! For more information about Midwest Millions, click here.