ialottery blog

Twitter/Facebook Contest Winners

Thank you to everyone who entered our Twitter/Facebook contest yesterday! We had a lot of fun using our picnic theme to figure out the winners of our “Made in the Shade” instant-scratch tickets.

Ten of our fans on Facebook and followers on Twitter each won $10 in free tickets in the game. Congrats to:

From Twitter:          From Facebook:
@JohnCR                  Melissa Grimsley
@jcollie                    Jim Van Cleave
@mas1683                Janet S. Osborn
@eulakaye                Matthew Cousins
@adangross 
@alexson

You'll need to contact Pam Brocker, the lottery's promotions manager, at 515.725.7929 so she can get your address and send out your free tix! Thanks again for following and friending us! Be sure to watch for another contest next month.

Do You Have A $20 Bonus Coming?

As you may have heard, there was an issue with our “Big Beepin’ Deal” promotion over the weekend that kept it from working for a couple days. A lot of people bought Powerball® tickets during the outage and should have been eligible for $20 bonuses from the lottery, but didn’t receive them. 

We’ve identified the tickets that were involved, but we don’t know who bought them all, so we decided the only way to ensure that a bonus is available to everyone who should have received one is to open the process up to anyone who bought an eligible ticket during the timeframe involved.

The promotion was not functioning from 12:01 a.m. Sunday (May 24) until 11:28 a.m. Tuesday (May 26). If you bought a Powerball ticket during that time that had five Powerball plays with the Power Play – a $10 purchase – you are eligible for a $20 bonus from the Iowa Lottery!

Just complete an Iowa Lottery claim form and mail the completed form along with your ticket to: Iowa Lottery, P.O. Box 10474, Des Moines, Iowa 50306. You have until May 27, 2010, to claim the bonus from the lottery.

Click here for all the details on how you can determine if your ticket is eligible for a $20 bonus. 

Next Twitter/Facebook Contest

We're gearing up for our next contest on Facebook and Twitter, so put it in your calendar!

It's set for 10 a.m. next Thursday (May 28). We’re heading into the summer season, so we’re going with a picnic theme this time around! We’ll give away 100 tickets in our “Made in the Shade” instant-scratch game. We’ll divide them up into 10 sets of $10 in tickets to spread the winnings around!

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 10 a.m. on Thursday, and the contest will only last for 15 minutes!

At 10 a.m. that day, we'll pose our 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 10 sets of tickets! 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 correct answers are received. After that is where the picnic theme comes in.

To determine the contest winners, we’re going to throw a bean bag onto a picnic table. (We’re modeling it after the beanbag-toss games you see people playing as they tailgate before football games.) The picnic table will be covered in a checkered tablecloth and we’ll draw squares on the tablecloth. The squares will be numbered and your name will be assigned to one of the numbers.

If the beanbag lands in the square with your number on it, you’ll win one of the sets of tickets! Here’s hoping we have good aim next Thursday, or the contest could take awhile!

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 other details:
• 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!

Results Of Latest Security Checks In Iowa

There’s good news from another round of security checks at lottery retail locations in Iowa.

Lottery investigators posing as customers visited 66 randomly-selected retail locations last week, presenting tickets for cashing that each had won prizes of up to $100. In every instance, the location paid the correct prize amount.

We’re varying the approach we use in our checks, and this time, our investigators made many of their stops at night, while their previous checks had been during the day. And, we purposefully timed this month’s checks to hit during the current big Powerball jackpot run that’s creating high sales. The jackpot has climbed to an estimated $170 million for tonight’s drawing.

We think it’s important to try out different scenarios during our security checks to try to cover as many situations as possible. In February, lottery security investigators, all of whom were men, posed as the customers. In April, investigators oversaw the process, but women who work at the lottery posed as customers and presented the tickets for cashing. Now this month, we did many of our stops at night. In all of our checks, the locations paid the correct prize amount for the tickets presented to them.

I’ve blogged before about the problems with lottery ticket redemption in areas outside Iowa, and all the actions we’ve taken are designed to guard against even the possibility of that here in our state. Click here and here to read those earlier blogs.    

If you ever have a concern about the Iowa Lottery, our products or operations, please contact us at our main number in Des Moines at 515-725-7900 or by e-mail at Wmaster@ialottery.com. If you have a security-related concern about the lottery, please call the Lottery Security Department directly at 515-725-7900.

This Year’s Version Of The Freedom Rock

If you haven’t yet heard about The Freedom Rock in western Iowa, that’s all going to change! Here’s a look at this year’s version of the giant boulder honoring veterans as local artist Ray “Bubba” Sorensen II continues to paint it. It will be ready for its big reveal by Memorial Day.

To see The Freedom Rock in person, just go west on I-80 to Iowa Highway 25 (Exit 86) in Adair County. Take the exit and head south on Highway 25. You’ll find the rock right along the highway just a couple miles down. It’s about 45 minutes west of the Des Moines area and it’s definitely worth the trip!

The Lottery will have a big connection with The Freedom Rock this year. More about that later!

Do You Have The Winning Ticket?

We’ve got a pretty unusual situation in Iowa right now, with two Powerball tickets that each won a $200,000 prize this month still unclaimed.

The tickets were sold at convenience stores in Council Bluffs and Clinton.

The Clinton ticket won a $200,000 prize in the Powerball drawing on May 6. It was sold at Porter’s Convenient 66, 1512 Lincolnway in Clinton. The winning numbers in the $94.7 million jackpot drawing that night were: 7-8-12-22-31 and Powerball 18. The Power Play number was 5.

The Council Bluffs ticket won a $200,000 prize in Saturday’s $113.7 million Powerball drawing. It was sold at Eddy’s, 3434 Nebraska Ave. in Council Bluffs. The winning numbers in Saturday’s drawing were: 4-15-32-49-58 and Powerball 21. The Power Play number was 3.

Players win the $200,000 prize by matching the first five numbers but missing the Powerball. Neither ticket this month included the Power Play option, which would have multiplied the prizes to $1 million. and $600,000 respectively. (I wrote that incorrectly, and Mark, a sharp-eyed blog reader, wrote to ask about it! Under changes made to the game in January, a Powerball ticket that wins a $200,000 prize and also has the Power Play option added to it will always win $1 million. Thanks, Mark!)    

As of this morning, we still hadn’t heard from the big winner – or winners – in either case. So please help us spread the word!

The $200,000 prizes must be claimed at one of our offices in Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Mason City, Storm Lake or Council Bluffs. Click here for a list of Iowa Lottery office addresses and maps to their locations.

It’s unusual for there to be two winning tickets like this that are unclaimed because a lot of the time, folks who have won prizes this large come forward right away. It’s possible the winners don’t even realize yet that they’ve got the big winners, so we’re doing all we can to get the word out there.

There’s still plenty of time for the winners to come forward. In Iowa, winners have 365 days from the date of the Powerball drawing in which they won a prize to claim their winnings.

P.S. The Powerball jackpot continues to roll, heading to an estimated $150 million for Saturday’s drawing!   

Refresher About Powerball's Match 5 Bonus System

One of our blog readers sent us a great question about Powerball's Match 5 Bonus system and it's giving me the chance to give everyone a refresher course on that system and the winnings it can bring.

The Match 5 Bonus system was added to Powerball in 2002. The idea behind the change was to give more people a chance to take home big winnings in Powerball. The system already has been used a couple times and it will kick in again when the Powerball jackpot gets into record territory!

Here's how it works: When the Powerball jackpot rolls into record territory, it only grows by $25 million between drawings until it is won. The rest of the money that normally would go to the jackpot goes instead into a separate "bonus pool." That bonus pool also keeps growing until the jackpot is won. Once that happens, the bonus pool is divided amongst the players in that drawing who won Powerball's second prize by matching the first five numbers but missing the Powerball. That prize normally is $200,000, and any share of the Bonus Pool money is added to that.

Now, if you're a Powerball aficionado, you know that if you add the Power Play option to your ticket and you match the first five numbers, your prize is multiplied to $1 million. So in those cases, any share of the Bonus Pool money would be added to the $1 million. We're talking serious prize money at that point!

The Match 5 Bonus system has meant significant winnings for some Iowa Lottery players. In October 2005, a Hiawatha woman won $853,492 with the Bonus system. And in February 2006, a group of 20 co-workers at a Clinton medical laboratory split a $667,142 Match 5 Bonus prize.

The record Powerball jackpot currently is $365 million. It was won in February 2006 by eight co-workers at a Nebraska meatpacking plant. The jackpot will need to top $365 million before the Match 5 Bonus system will kick in again. So, I guess we all can say, "Roll, baby, roll!" when it comes to the Powerball jackpot!

Powerball Prize Patrol Alert!

Here's another reason to make sure you have a Powerball ticket on you this summer: the Powerball Prize Patrol!

I've been sharing details with you here about the "Keep Your Ticket Handy" project we're working on this summer with the Iowa Tourism Office. The Prize Patrol is part of that initiative.

Our Prize Patrol team will visit local festivals, fairs and other big events during May and June in Iowa and they'll have prizes and special offers for anyone who has a Powerball ticket on them! You never know when someone may come up and ask if you’ve got a Powerball ticket. If you do and you can show it to them, you'll get a prize or a coupon with a special offer on the spot!  Prize Patrol members are pretty easy to spot because they'll usually be driving our "Powerbug," which you see in the pic here.  

This past weekend, our Prize Patrol had fun surprising people at Kites Over Grinnell. And this coming weekend, our team will be making folks happy at the Muscatine Boat Show and at the races at the Iowa Speedway.

So, remember there could be something in it for you if you do what our slogan says: Keep Your Powerball Ticket Handy!

We'll be adding our Prize Patrol stops to the list of lottery events we keep on our Web site, so be sure to check the list to see if our team will be coming to your area!

The Latest Special Offers In “Keep Your Ticket Handy”

Remember to take advantage of the special offers being made to Iowa Powerball players through the “Keep Your Ticket Handy” initiative!

The second round of offers is currently underway and you’ll need a nonwinning ticket from Wednesday night’s drawing to be eligible. Another round of offers will kick off Sunday, so be sure to have a ticket for this Saturday’s Powerball drawing so you’ll be ready!

The National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium is the current featured attraction in the campaign. It’s offering two free adult admissions worth a total value of $21! The Dubuque attraction features six large aquariums and exhibits that include giant catfish, turtles, otters, ducks, frogs, reptiles and the history of America's most famous river, the Mississippi River. Interactive exhibits and living history demonstrations bring its river-front campus to life. The facility also includes a riverboat museum, boatyard, wetland and a refurbished train depot.

As news about the travel initiative has spread, other Iowa events and businesses also have decided to make special, unadvertised bonus offers to Iowa Powerball players. So, right now, you also can visit the lottery’s Web site to see how you can use your nonwinning Powerball tickets to receive: 

• 1 free adult admission to Blank Park Zoo in Des Moines, valid May 7–10.
• $10 in savings on a Blank Park Zoo Family Membership Pass valid May 7–15.
• 1 free adult admission to Living History Farms in Urbandale, valid May 10.
• Savings of $7.50 tickets to the Big Country Bash concert in Des Moines (regularly priced tickets are $27.50). The event is Sunday, June 28, and features Tracy Lawrence and John Michael Montgomery, among others.
• 1 free 20-ounce fountain drink at U-Stop convenience stores in Council Bluffs, Minden and Crescent valid May 7–July 10.
• 1 free Powerball ticket when you purchase five Iowa Lottery scratch tickets at The Cigarette Outlet locations in Cedar Rapids, Fort Madison, Marion, Muscatine, Ottumwa and Washington. Offer valid May 7–July 1.

Powerball ticket holders must use one ticket per coupon, or select which offer they wish to use.

The Latest Big Iowa Lottery Winner!

When you work at the lottery, you just never know when the next big winner is going to come walking through the door. Well, it just happened today! We were at work this morning, taking care of the usual day-to-day details when our validations area called and said they’d like our help in congratulating a $250,000 winner!

What a great story he turned out to have! He’s Russ Twelmeyer, a retired computer guy from Des Moines. On Tuesday, he was headed to his favorite hang-out spot, a restaurant called Francie’s on Des Moines’ south side. On his way in, he stopped at the Quik Trip across the street and bought some scratch tickets. He won $55, so he went back across the street and bought some more tickets.

And on the last one, he thought he’d won $250. Then he looked again and thought it was $2,500! Then he decided to put his glasses on to be sure and that’s when he saw even more zeroes!

Twelmeyer is now making plans for his winnings. Some are long range – like padding his retirement account. Some are just for fun – like traveling to Hawaii where he grew up, and spoiling his grandkids.

And now that he’s a big winner, Twelmeyer definitely remembers those who played a part in his good fortune. He went back to the c-store right away and gave a $100 tip to the clerk who sold him the winning ticket! After all, he says if it weren’t for her, he might not have have won!